Environments: Recommend Colima as the Docker runtime on macOS

README.md

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Here is a comprehensive directory map of the active services at the root of this
 
 For most subprojects, you can spin up a local development instance with Node.js and Docker via `wp-env` under the `environments/` directory:
 
-1. Ensure **Docker Desktop** is running.
+1. Ensure a [Docker runtime](environments/README.md#docker-runtime) is running.
 2. Navigate to [environments/](environments).
 3. Run `npm install` to install dependencies.
 4. Launch the environment of your choice:

environments/README.md

@@ -4,9 +4,28 @@ Local development environments for WordPress.org projects, powered by [`wp-env`]
 
 ## Prerequisites
 
-- [Docker](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/) installed and running
+- A Docker runtime, installed and running (see below)
 - [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) — the version in [.nvmrc](.nvmrc) (`nvm use`)
 
+### Docker runtime
+
+On macOS, use [Colima](https://github.com/abiosoft/colima). It's free and open source and needs no account.
+
+```bash
+brew install colima docker docker-compose
+colima start --cpu 4 --memory 4
+```
+
+Homebrew installs Compose as a Docker CLI plugin outside the CLI's search path. On Apple Silicon, point the CLI at it by adding this property to `~/.docker/config.json`, keeping whatever else is already in the file:
+
+```json
+"cliPluginsExtraDirs": [ "/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins" ]
+```
+
+Colima remembers the CPU and memory settings, so later starts are just `colima start`. To start it at login instead, run `brew services start colima`.
+
+On Windows, consider using [Rancher Desktop](https://rancherdesktop.io/) with its dockerd (moby) engine, or [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/). On Linux, use [Docker Engine](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/).
+
 ## Setup
 
 From the `environments/` directory: