Gabor Nagy (full stack in marketing) created this to the point and detailed article some time ago. It is great insight into various types of containers.
Many people simply want to use Docker because of its rising popularity, but without understanding if a Docker container is what they need. Article explains Hypervisor based Virtualization and Operating System/Container Virtualization. The difference between a container and a full-fledged VM is that all containers share the same kernel of the host system.
Author like to classify the containers into special types based on how they can be used. He also explains Layers of containers and how they are built on top of other technologies.
So in general when you want to package and distribute your application as components, application containers serve as a good resort. Whereas, if you just want an operating system in which you can install different libraries, languages, databases, etc., OS containers are better suited.
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