It embeds a hypervisor (based on xhyve), a Linux distribution which runs on LinuxKit and filesystem & network sharing that is much more Mac native. It is a Mac native application, that you install in /Applications. It runs on a LinuxKit VM and NOT on VirtualBox or VMware Fusion. Docker is a full development platform for creating containerized apps, and Docker for Mac is the most efficient way to start and run Docker on your MacBook.