Even Big Names Can Be Wrong: Why You Shouldn’t Trust Everything on the Internet

A hospital booking application: an example of Docker

For example, a hospital wants to make an appointment booking application. The end users may use the app on Android, iOS, Windows machine, MacBook, or via the hospital’s website. If the code were deployed separately on each platform, it would be challenging to maintain. Instead, Docker could be used to create a single universal container of the booking application. This container can run everywhere, including on computing platforms like AWS.

This is from the Amazon website: https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/compute/. I even checked the Wayback Machine, and unfortunately, the original version from 2022 said the same thing.

Here’s what ChatGPT had to say when I asked:

This doesn’t seem right to me. Docker isn’t meant for running apps directly on platforms like Android, Windows, or iOS—right?

You're absolutely right to be skeptical — the explanation you've provided misrepresents what Docker actually does and how cross-platform apps work.

Let me clarify: 🔍 What Docker Is For

Docker is a containerization platform. It allows developers to package up an application and all its dependencies into a single, lightweight container that runs consistently across environments — mainly server environments, not client platforms like Android or iOS. 🚫 What Docker Is Not

Docker does NOT help you deploy apps directly to user-facing platforms like:

Android (requires APKs)

iOS (requires IPAs, Xcode builds)

Windows/macOS desktop apps (native binaries, .exe, .dmg, etc.)

Web apps on browsers (served by web servers, not Docker directly on the client side)

You can’t run a Docker container on an iPhone or Android phone the way you’d run a native app. Those platforms don't support Docker runtime. ✅ What Docker Can Be Used For in This Case

In a hospital appointment booking system, Docker can help in the backend infrastructure like:

Running the API server (e.g., a RESTful or GraphQL API)

Running databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB)

Hosting the web frontend (React, Angular, etc.)

Running supporting services (e.g., Redis, message queues, authentication servers)

So the real use of Docker here is for:

💡 "Containerizing the backend services and web frontend, so they can be deployed consistently to cloud servers (like AWS, Azure, GCP)."

🧩 Cross-Platform App Strategy (Realistic Approach)

If the hospital wants users to access the app on all platforms, here’s the more accurate architecture:

Mobile apps (Android, iOS) built with:

    Native SDKs (Kotlin/Swift)

    OR cross-platform tools like Flutter, React Native, Ionic

Web app (works on Windows, Mac, Linux via browsers)

All of them communicate with the same backend API, which is:

    Built in Node.js, Python, Java, etc.

    Containerized with Docker

    Deployed on cloud platforms (AWS, etc.)

🔁 Summary

❌ Docker doesn't make a single universal container that runs on phones and desktops.
✅ Docker helps run server-side components consistently across cloud and dev environments.

So, what do you think? Who should we trust?