Best Way to Install Docker on Mac

docker mac colima containers

Docker Desktop for Mac can be resource-heavy and slow. Colima provides a lightweight, free alternative that’s faster and more efficient. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to uninstall Docker Desktop and install Colima with Docker’s command-line tools using Homebrew.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have:

• macOS (this tutorial is optimized for Mac)
• Homebrew installed (Install Homebrew if you haven’t already)

Step 1: Uninstall Docker Desktop

First, let’s remove Docker Desktop to avoid conflicts:

# Stop Docker Desktop if it's running
osascript -e 'quit app "Docker"'

# Remove Docker Desktop application
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Docker.app

# Remove Docker Desktop files
rm -rf ~/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.docker
rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker
rm -rf ~/.docker

Step 2: Install Colima and Docker CLI

The fastest way to get Colima installed is through Homebrew:

brew install colima

Once Colima installs, install Docker and Docker Compose:

brew install docker docker-compose

Step 3: Configure Docker Compose Plugin

Configure docker-compose as a Docker plugin so you can use docker compose instead of the legacy docker-compose script:

# Create Docker CLI plugins directory
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins

# Symlink docker-compose to the plugins directory
ln -sfn $(brew --prefix)/opt/docker-compose/bin/docker-compose ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Test the installation:

docker compose

You should see the help message confirming the installation.

Step 4: Install Docker Buildx

Install Buildx for building Docker containers:

brew install docker-buildx

Symlink it to the CLI plugins folder:

ln -sfn $(brew --prefix)/opt/docker-buildx/bin/docker-buildx ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

Step 5: Start Colima

Colima works by using a virtual machine to run containers, similar to Docker for Mac. On first run, it will download and configure a VM with 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory, and 60GiB storage.

colima start

You’ll see output similar to:

INFO[0000] starting colima
INFO[0000] creating and starting ...                     context=vm
INFO[0041] provisioning ...                              context=docker
INFO[0074] done

Step 6: Test Your Installation

Run Docker’s hello-world image to verify everything works:

docker run hello-world

You should see output confirming Docker is working correctly.

Step 7: Basic Docker Operations

Let’s test some basic Docker operations:

List containers

docker ps -a

List images

docker images

Remove containers and images

# Remove a container (replace with your container name)
docker rm <container_name>

# Remove an image (replace with your image ID)
docker rmi <image_id>

Step 8: Build Your Own Image

Create a simple test project to verify building works:

# Create project directory
mkdir docker-test && cd docker-test

# Create HTML directory and file
mkdir html
cat <<EOF > html/index.html
<h1>Hi from Docker</h1>
EOF

# Create Dockerfile
cat <<EOF > Dockerfile
FROM nginx:latest
COPY ./html /usr/share/nginx/html
EOF

# Build the image
docker build -t docker-nginx-test .

# Run the container
docker run --rm -t -p 3000:80 docker-nginx-test

Visit http://localhost:3000 in your browser to see your custom page.

Customizing Colima’s Virtual Machine

You can customize the VM settings based on your needs:

Change CPU and Memory

# Stop current VM
colima stop

# Start with custom settings
colima start --cpu 4 --memory 4

Create VM with More Disk Space

colima start --cpu 4 --memory 4 --disk 100

Enable Kubernetes Support

# Install kubectl first
brew install kubectl

# Start with Kubernetes
colima start --with-kubernetes

Useful Colima Commands

# Check status
colima status

# Stop Colima
colima stop

# Delete Colima VM
colima delete

# View all options
colima help start

Performance Benefits

Colima offers several advantages over Docker Desktop:

• Faster startup: Colima starts in seconds vs minutes
• Lower resource usage: Uses less CPU and memory
• Free and open source: No licensing fees
• Command-line focused: Better for automation and CI/CD
• Customizable: Full control over VM settings

Troubleshooting

If Docker commands fail

# Restart Colima
colima stop
colima start

# Check Docker context
docker context ls

If you need to reset everything

colima delete
colima start

Conclusion

Colima provides a lightweight, efficient alternative to Docker Desktop for Mac. It’s faster, uses fewer resources, and gives you more control over your container environment. The setup is straightforward with Homebrew, and you get all the Docker functionality you need without the overhead of Docker Desktop.

For more information, visit Colima’s GitHub page or explore colima help for all available options.

Happy containerizing! 🐳