I had the same experience for a while, and was a little bitter about repeatedly taking them at their word that you could transparently `alias docker=podman`, even when Podman 4.0 didn't even support volume mounts from the host without jumping through hoops.
I suggested that the team document or at least label compatibility issues so users are informed about them, but they rejected the idea[0], recommending instead that users keep abreast of changes to a 35 page troubleshooting file.
That said, I've been living on it full time for a few months, and it's working well. I'm using the Docker CLI with Podman providing the backend implementation. Biggest caveats: Mounting volumes from the host is still a little limited. It doesn't play nice with giving docker.sock back to Docker Engine (wontfix[1]). The --platform flag was broken but should be fixed in 4.6.
I suggested that the team document or at least label compatibility issues so users are informed about them, but they rejected the idea[0], recommending instead that users keep abreast of changes to a 35 page troubleshooting file.
That said, I've been living on it full time for a few months, and it's working well. I'm using the Docker CLI with Podman providing the backend implementation. Biggest caveats: Mounting volumes from the host is still a little limited. It doesn't play nice with giving docker.sock back to Docker Engine (wontfix[1]). The --platform flag was broken but should be fixed in 4.6.
0: https://github.com/containers/podman/discussions/14430
1: https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/18784