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You could branch out in a lot of directions from here. Compiling from source is another option, or messing around with config files. Depends on where you want to go in the education.

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Docker is still helpful even when you want to compile for source. Something that's simple with containers but maddening on bare metal is build or runtime configs where different versions of packed/libraries are required. A container lets you have a super customized build environment for a single application that can spit out a binary that'll run on bare metal but might otherwise pollute the machine's build config.

Some languages make building harder than others but containers can obviate a lot of that difficulty even if the runtime target is bare metal.

There are simpler (maybe not easier) solutions for that.

If it's not easier what's the point? I could set up a chroot and do a bunch of scripting and debugging to isolate build environments or just write a dozen line Dockerfile. My time is valuable so the Dockerfile is effective and incredibly easy.

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