definitely docker. it just has so much more documentation and community involvement.

I started with Docker and then migrated to Podman for the integrated Cockpit dashboard support. All my docker-compose files work transparently on top of rootful Podman so the migration was relatively easy. Things get finicky when you try to go rootless though.

I say try both. Rootful podman is gonna be closest to the Docker experience.

Docker if you are unsure how to begin. You can use docker compose with configs you find on the internet.

If your interested in podman I would start by using it though distrobox. Distrobox is a tool that allows other Linux environments on your host system and is really good for development

I use podman, even when I started out. But I am a tinkerer. I think for the average beginner, docker will be easier as so much out there assumes you are using Docker only, and hard codes it. Unless you wanna deal with that, use Docker.

A year or two ago (whenever docker changed the business license of docker for Mac) I changed to podman and aliased docker=podman. It behaves the same, you would just about never know rootful podman vs docker.

Rootless podman is super cool and a much better security ideal - but comparing more apples to apples would be podman running as root vs docker.