--- title: Docker: Explained to a 5 year old. 👶🏻 | daily.dev description: Docker is a way to containerize applications (putting code in boxes that can work on their own) Containers are boxes that have no host Operating system, so... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/docker-explained-to-a-5-year-old--hug72-fqi twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Docker: Explained to a 5 year old. 👶🏻 | daily.dev og:description: Docker is a way to containerize applications (putting code in boxes that can work on their own) Containers are boxes that have no host Operating system, so... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/docker-explained-to-a-5-year-old--hug72-fqi og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Hug72_fQi.png og:image:alt: Docker: Explained to a 5 year old. 👶🏻 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Docker: Explained to a 5 year old. 👶🏻 **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · [@dhravya](https://daily.dev/dhravya) · 3 min read · 231 upvotes · 13 comments ## Summary Docker is a way to containerize applications (putting code in boxes that can work on their own) Containers are boxes that have no host Operating system, so they are independent of the device they run on. A Dockerfile is a text document that contains all the commands a user could call on the command line to assemble an image. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@staticvoid** · 3 upvotes > Great explanation! **@shivesh663** · 2 upvotes > lol, the pic is relatable **@shatha\_alghamdi** · 1 upvotes > Great post ! Thank u **@safi28** · 1 upvotes > Great article! **@trinhminhnhat** · 0 upvotes > I became a 5 years old kid after reading this article 😂 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#containers](https://daily.dev/tags/containers), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#flask](https://daily.dev/tags/flask) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/docker-explained-to-a-5-year-old--hug72-fqi) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required 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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/docker-explained-to-a-5-year-old--hug72-fqi","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great explanation!","datePublished":"2022-03-17T03:20:28.181Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Hug72_fQi#c-Vgb6FK5a_","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dhruva Srinivas","url":"https://daily.dev/staticvoid","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/66675022?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"lol, the pic is relatable","datePublished":"2022-03-17T09:21:29.280Z","dateModified":"2022-03-17T09:22:19.909Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Hug72_fQi#c-1pacOK4si","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Shivesh 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Thank u","datePublished":"2022-03-16T23:12:52.331Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Hug72_fQi#c-O8H_tgBcP","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Shatha Alghamdi","url":"https://daily.dev/shatha_alghamdi","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14GgG28YHTZ4URjXdtSQJI837pxgaZEWCxlQtTZ8u=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great article!","datePublished":"2022-03-17T07:11:28.171Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Hug72_fQi#c-4dVIsuHML","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Saphie Hanadi","url":"https://daily.dev/safi28","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1673594031/avatars/avatar_pSdw3LJqL.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I became a 5 years old kid after reading this article 😂","datePublished":"2022-03-23T13:21:28.647Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Hug72_fQi#c-H3GxECrQg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Trịnh Minh Nhật","url":"https://daily.dev/trinhminhnhat","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Q7KuOs-b--/f_auto/v1720662983/avatars/avatar_6dH07luCEs7IwVXKNY4AY"}}]} ```