Docker Still Worth It for Spring Boot? Comparing Distroless, Jib, and Slim Images

Shant Khayalian

3 min read

·

Apr 21, 2025

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Bob’s Story: The Container Burger Problem

Bob was preparing burgers at his food truck.
He used to pack every burger with everything — sauces, extra boxes, even the entire kitchen sink.

People loved it. But…

• Storage costs exploded
• Deliveries slowed down
• And the health inspector wasn’t impressed by leftover shell scripts in the packaging

“Do I really need all this junk in my containers?”
That’s when Bob discovered Distroless, Jib, and Slim Docker Images for Spring Boot.

Just like a burger — the leaner, the cleaner.

What’s the Problem with Default Spring Boot Docker Images?

Most devs do this:

FROM openjdk:17-jdk
COPY target/app.jar app.jar
ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "app.jar"]

But this:

• Includes full OS (bash, curl, even unused libs)
• Leads to huge images (~300MB+)
• Has attack surface (more binaries = more risk)