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Installing Podman

David Anderson edited this page Jan 17, 2026 · 1 revision

Docker is a system that makes it easy for BOINC projects to run applications on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. It's like VirtualBox but more efficient and easier to use.

Docker itself is a commercial product. Podman is an open-source replacement for Docker. We use Podman because it's free and easier to install. But if you have Docker installed, BOINC will detect and use it.

Some BOINC projects will use Docker to package their apps. To run these apps, you need to have Podman or Docker installed on computers running BOINC.

Eventually we hope to include Podman in the BOINC installer. For now, you need to install it yourself. It's easy, and we strongly encourage you to do it.

Instructions for installing Podman:

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