It's not cynical, it's PR 101. You shouldn't respond publicly to something until you've calmed down. (It's actually good advice overall). No good can come from posting in the heat of the moment. Hell, you had the founder of Docker calling some of the people in this thread "trolls". That's not a win for anyone.

The problem for the Docker folks was that they were making things into a much bigger deal than they otherwise were. By attacking the CoreOS announcement, both here in comments and in their blog, they only amplified the issue. Consider it a corollary of the Streisand effect.

You even alluded to this earlier in the day when you told them to: Don't do PR, just build the better thing.

There isn't anything here to "work out", and if there is something, it needed to not happen in public. People from Docker just needed to stop talking for a while and take a time out. They weren't helping their situation and didn't seem to get that.

If these projects are using 'open design processes', then the conversations do need to happen in the public.

What I felt as cynical about your post were things like:

>and made it seem like you were the leader of the market

I feel this is cynical because it's advocating not for facts and technical solutions, but arguably, willful misleading of the public. Docker should be open and honest about its software and its positions, not trying to create narratives where it 'seems' like you are something that you might not be.

>you just made the PR that much stronger for the CoreOS POV

The reason I advocated for not 'doing PR' is that, in my book, PR is an exercise in charade. Tell us what you feel, what you're working on, and why these things are good. Don't try to 'manage' appearances. If you have a problem with something, let it be known.

I think there are some things that might be able to be worked out. Docker and CoreOS/Rocket may be able to co-exist. Rocket doesn't seem to have the tools to easily produce the ACI's. Dockerfiles are widely used and pretty decent. Docker could focus on tooling while CoreOS handles execution. Both companies have contributed useful technology and it's not exactly clear that one company can/should own the entire solution.

Docker wants to be the leader in the market for containerized deployments, right? This is largely a competition for mind-share and users. How you act in a matters. Messaging matters. If Docker wants to be perceived as the leader in containers, then they should act like it.

PR isn't just standing in front of a microphone and saying what you're working on or how awesome you are. It's how you act in public, how you treat customers and competitors. You want to be authentic, but you don't have to share everything about how you feel to the public. Similarly, overly managed responses can be just as bad. There are good and bad ways to make an argument. Sometimes, it doesn't matter if you're right or not, if the way you make your argument turns people off, you are going to lose.

I think that the whole Docker/Rocket thing was vastly blown out of proportion, and wasn't the big deal that they made it out to be. Let's see who can make the best solution. But it is a mistake to think that this was a technical issue - it wasn't. The way that the situation was handled clouded what could have been a technical discussion of the merits or need for Rocket. At the same time, don't think that the best technical solution always wins.