<commit_before>page_title: FAQ
page_description: Most frequently asked questions.
page_keywords: faq, questions, documentation, docker

# FAQ

## Most frequently asked questions

### How much does Docker cost?

Docker is 100% free, it is open source, so you can use it without
paying.

### What open source license are you using?

We are using the Apache License Version 2.0, see it here:
[https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/LICENSE](
https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/LICENSE)

### Does Docker run on Mac OS X or Windows?

Not at this time, Docker currently only runs on Linux, but you can use
VirtualBox to run Docker in a virtual machine on your box, and get the
best of both worlds. Check out the [*Mac OS X*](../installation/mac/#macosx)
and [*Microsoft Windows*](../installation/windows/#windows) installation
guides. The small Linux distribution boot2docker can be run inside virtual
machines on these two operating systems.

### How do containers compare to virtual machines?

They are complementary. VMs are best used to allocate chunks of
hardware resources. Containers operate at the process level, which
makes them very lightweight and perfect as a unit of software
delivery.

### What does Docker add to just plain LXC?

Docker is not a replacement for LXC. "LXC" refers to capabilities of
the Linux kernel (specifically namespaces and control groups) which
allow sandboxing processes from one another, and controlling their
resource allocations. On top of this low-level foundation of kernel
features, Docker offers a high-level tool with several powerful
functionalities:

 - *Portable deployment across machines.*
   Docker defines a format for bundling an application and all
   its dependencies into a single object which can be transferred
   to any Docker-enabled machine, and executed there with the
   guarantee that the execution environment exposed to the<commit_msg>Grammar fix and style tweak in docs/sources/faq.md<commit_after>page_title: FAQ
page_description: Most frequently asked questions.
page_keywords: faq, questions, documentation, docker

# FAQ

## Most frequently asked questions

### How much does Docker cost?

Docker is 100% free. It is open source, so you can use it without
paying.

### What open source license are you using?

We are using the Apache License Version 2.0, see it here:
[https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/LICENSE](
https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/LICENSE)

### Does Docker run on Mac OS X or Windows?

Docker currently runs only on Linux, but you can use VirtualBox to run
Docker in a virtual machine on your box, and get the best of both worlds.
Check out the [*Mac OS X*](../installation/mac/#macosx) and [*Microsoft
Windows*](../installation/windows/#windows) installation guides. The small
Linux distribution boot2docker can be run inside virtual machines on these
two operating systems.

### How do containers compare to virtual machines?

They are complementary. VMs are best used to allocate chunks of
hardware resources. Containers operate at the process level, which
makes them very lightweight and perfect as a unit of software
delivery.

### What does Docker add to just plain LXC?

Docker is not a replacement for LXC. "LXC" refers to capabilities of
the Linux kernel (specifically namespaces and control groups) which
allow sandboxing processes from one another, and controlling their
resource allocations. On top of this low-level foundation of kernel
features, Docker offers a high-level tool with several powerful
functionalities:

 - *Portable deployment across machines.*
   Docker defines a format for bundling an application and all
   its dependencies into a single object which can be transferred
   to any Docker-enabled machine, and executed there with the
   guarantee that the execution environment exposed to the
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