Investigate viability of using Docker to distribute #47
Description
Using Docker as a distribution mechanism has a lot of advantages. For one we would not need to support multiple platforms. At least not if we used Docker exclusively. Another is that using Docker would make it much easier to distribute to, and run on, cloud platforms.
Not having to support Windows would not only make the development team exceedingly happy, but it would also save a lot of resources. It would also allow Windows users to take advantage of unix-only tools that we'd like to otherwise include in APBS. PETSc immediately comes to mind.
Distribution of APBS could be relegated to putting new images on Docker Hub. This would make upgrading painless for our end users. Installation would be pretty simple as well, although I don't have any experience getting Docker up on Windows.
Investigating how easy it is for users, especially Windows users, to install Docker would be one of the first tasks. We would also have to see how well Docker can take advantage of GPU hardware, if it can do that at all.