Yes they can be used for this, but they are usefull for a lot more things, we use docker intensively CI in Jenkins for documented, project-specific build environments. I replaced dozens of build VM's that were idle 95% of the time with 1 beefed up VM running docker. I use a lot less resources a lot more efficiently.
Yes it is hyped, but that doesn't mean it's useless. Docker or containerisation, just as any other tech, is just another tool in the box. It's up to the users to decide how to use it - or not to use it. Stop bitching about it, and just don't use it if you don't see any advantages in your use-cases. For me, it was mostly a positive experience.
This. Doing apt-get install on Travis builds to spin up my required tools on every build was slow and a PITA. I started using GitLab CI with the Docker executor[0], that's reduced to `docker pull myimage` which is often times cached locally. Build time when from up to 10s of minutes -> seconds.
I built a Docker image for building Android AOSP projects[1]. Few people use Docker for build environments where it's immensely valuable. I don't want to develop my low level Android platform code on Ubuntu 14.04, I'd rather throw the build over the wall to a pre-vetted build image that always works.
Sure I could roll my own special Jenkins slave to do this, but why not leverage Docker? Perhaps it'd be too easy to use the same Docker image on my development laptop.
I do agree with the author in some respects that some people don't fully understand when containers are valuable and instead containerize all the things!
[0] http://doc.gitlab.com/ci/docker/using_docker_images.html
For context on author's perspective. Perhaps the post is related to http://www.ansible.com/blog/red-hat
