Please Reconsider Restricting SOCKS Proxy to Business Subscription in Docker Desktop

[SunsetMkt]

Tell us about your request
Please Reconsider Restricting SOCKS Proxy to Business Subscription in Docker Desktop

Which service(s) is this request for?
Docker Desktop (Windows)

Tell us about the problem you're trying to solve. What are you trying to do, and why is it hard?
Restricting SOCKS proxy usage to the Business Subscription unfairly impacts individual developers and small teams who rely on it in restrictive network environments. Docker's success is built on contributions from the open-source community, which largely consists of these developers.

This policy risks alienating the very community that helped Docker thrive. Individual developers often lack the resources for a Business plan, and making essential features paywalled erodes trust and accessibility.

Please reconsider this decision to maintain Docker’s reputation as an inclusive and community-focused tool.

Are you currently working around the issue?
HTTP Proxy

[mikesir87]

Hello @SunsetMkt! First off all, thanks for taking the time to submit and share your feedback. It's certainly appreciated!

When it comes to the use of proxies, we typically see this used more often in business settings. So, I'd love to learn more about your use case so I can represent it fairly with our internal teams.

How would you use this feature in your day-to-day work? What capabilities would it unlock or enhance that the workarounds you mentioned (the usage of HTTP proxies) wouldn't? Anything else you can share?

[SunsetMkt]

In China (PRC), the government censors the internet without clear legal grounds. This includes measures like DNS poisoning and SNI blocking, which make it impossible to directly access many international websites, including DockerHub. As a result, many developers in China are forced to rely on proxies. However, HTTP proxies cannot handle DNS requests, rendering them ineffective for bypassing DNS poisoning.