[jarvuschris]

It does not rely on Docker. On a Linux system you can use the build tools and there's no dependence on Docker at all, it uses chroot's for its isolated "studio" build environments. The mac and windows habitat clients use Docker to create a Linux-like environment

One of the key innovations in habitat is that it gives you reliable dependency isolation WITHOUT needing the runtime isolation of containers to achieve it. Containers become optional.

A habitat build artifact can be installed and run natively on nearly _any_ POSIX system, the state of the system doesn't matter and you get the same behavior top-to-bottom. There are a number of "exporters" available to repackage build artifacts into different runtime formats -- Docker container is just one option