why do I need docker desktop to run docker?

Docker as a technology can only be ran on a Linux Operating System(OS). Docker Desktop creates a Virtual Machine(VM) on you host OS and forwards commands from the docker cli to the linux VM. In addition it provides a Graphical User Interface for visualizing you container contents. There are multiple components that are included in Docker Desktop:

• Docker Engine

• Docker cli client

• Docker Scout

• Docker Buildx

• Docker Extensions

• Docker compose

• Docker Content Trust

• Kubernetes

• Credential Helper