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No, Docker is not right for this, mostly because Docker does not actually run on Mac; it runs on a Linux VM. MacOS doesn't really support containers.

I would suggest looking at Homebrew.

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containers on mac go through a VM

Many, many developers use Docker on Mac without issue

There is Docker Desktop and Colima you can use

There's two different things here.

Q: I need to run existing Docker containers on my Mac.

A: You have to use a VM; it's no big deal.

Q: What's the best way to package a new native Mac app?

A: Not containers.

Thank you very much, wmf, for clarifying. I am doing some research to replace the Java dependencies with Python exclusively, so I can create a .dmg installer using PyInstaller or similar tool. This appears to be a more straightforward approach

Take note, building .dmg or .exe of python apps may cause anti-viruses to panic when your users run the apps, they can add exceptions but I would recommend doing proper research into this.

Docker on Mac creates Linux VMs though and this creates really slow file system abstractions for bigger folders.

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