Back in March, we launched a private beta for a new ambitious project called Docker for Mac and Docker for Windows. Our major goal was to bring a native Docker experience to Mac and Windows, making it easier for developers to work with Docker in their own environments. And thousands agreed. Over thirty thousand applied in the first 24 hours. And by last week, we let in over seventy thousand.

And now all you need to get started developing is Docker and a text editor. No more installing dependencies and runtimes just to debug applications.

So today, we’re happy to announce that we’re opening up the beta for Docker for Mac and Windows to everyone. And along with the beta for Docker for Mac and Windows, you get the new Docker 1.12 release candidate.

Docker 1.12 includes a number of advanced orchestration features most requested by the Docker community, while preserving Docker’s ease of use. Starting with Docker 1.12, you will be able to natively deploy and manage not just containers but entire multi-tier distributed applications by creating a distributed application bundle.

To get started, download Docker for Mac or Docker for Windows and then run:

docker swarm init docker network create -d overlay nginx_net docker service create --name nginx --replicas 2 --network nginx_net -p 80:80/tcp nginx

This will create a persistent nginx service backed by two containers. Try stopping and restarting your Docker app, and notice that Docker brings the containers back up after the restart. This is a great feature for production Docker deployments, and you can start experimenting with it on your desktop with Docker for Mac and Windows. For more details, check out the Docker 1.12 overview and the blog post about the distributed application bundle.

At Docker, our goals are to:

A simple and fast installer that deploys Docker where you want to run your containers

Integrate deeply with the underlying infrastructure to make Docker run quickly and securely

Make the latest and greatest Docker versions available, and provide solid upgrade paths from one Docker version to the next

Docker for Mac and Windows help achieve this by giving you a seamless development environment on Mac and Windows. The major features you get are:

A faster and more reliable native development environment by using hypervisor support built into each platform. (No more VirtualBox!)

In-container debugging and development by improving volume support to automatically notify Docker Engine when a file changes and update it in the container. This allows you to get started developing with just a text editor and Docker, without having to install run-times and dependencies.

Native networking that lets Docker for Mac and Windows work easily with VPNs.

For more details and a demo, check out this deeper dive video:

To get started with Docker for Mac and Windows, download it today and read the documentation.

Learn More about Docker