OCI v1.0 Released

Open Container Initiative (OCI), a Linux Foundation Collaborative project led by Docker and industry players has announced the OCI v1.0.0 run time and image specifications.

OCI is a cross-industry initiative to standardize technologies around Linux containers. Essentially, OCI seems to achieve the same goals that W3C achieved by standardizing web technologies such as HTML and CSS.

OCI was set up as a top-level project under the Linux Foundation’s Collaborative project in 2015. By 2016 they set up a governance model around OCI, and Docker donated its container run time and image format to the project. Fast forward to 2017, and we have the first version of OCI run time and image specifications.

David Messina, SVP, Marketing and Community at Docker Inc. told us in an interview that OCI v1.0 continues to show Docker’s commitment to open standards and empowering the Docker ecosystem and community.

While Docker is working with the community around two core components of the container world – run time and image format – they are also open sourcing all of the core components of Docker itself to enable the community to consume the technologies being developed by the company.

During DockerCon this year, the company also announced two new open source projects, the Moby Project and LinuxKit, to further its commitment to open source.

Docker has also taken Linux containers beyond Linux by working with Microsoft to bring more than 900,000 Docker images to Microsoft Azure and Windows, thanks to the Hyper-V isolation work done by Microsoft. What it means is that now containers are cross-platform technology running on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.