In Docker image names what is the difference between Alpine, Jessie, Stretch, and Buster?

Question

I am just looking at docker images in https://hub.docker.com/_/node/

For every version, the images are categorized into Alpine, Jessie, Stretch, Buster etc. What's their meaning?

Answer 1

In docker-Context here are the important informations you need.

1. Alpine
   Url: https://alpinelinux.org/
   Imagename: alpine
   Shorty: Its very small.
   Packagemanger: apk
   Shells: /bin/sh
   Size: Few MBs - current tag needs 2.7MB

2. Jessie aka Debian 8
   Url: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianJessie
   Imagename: debian:jessie
   Shorty: No LTS anymore
   Packagemanager: apt
   Shells: /bin/bash
   Size: ~50mb

3. Stretch aka Debian 9
   Url: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianStretch
   Imagename: debian:stretch
   Shorty: LTS is running out
   Packagemanager: apt
   Shells: /bin/bash and many more
   Size: ~40mb

4. Buster aka Debian 10
   Url: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianBuster
   Imagename: debian:buster
   Shorty: All what you need, but newer
   Packagemanager: apt
   Shells: /bin/bash and many more
   Size: ~50mb

5. Bullseye aka Debian 11
   Url: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianBullseye
   Imagename: debian:bullseye
   Shorty: Newest debian
   Shells: /bin/bash and many more
   Size: ~50mb

6. Ubuntu based on debain
   Url: https://hub.docker.com/_/ubuntu
   Imagename: ubuntu
   Shorty: All what you need
   Packagemanager: apt
   Shells: /bin/bash and more
   Size: ~25mb

Answer 2

Those are the names of the OS in the container in which Node will be running.

Alpine is for Alpine Linux, Jessie and Stretch are versions of Debian. If you scroll down on the documentation link you provided, you'll find a section describing what Alpine is and why you might want to use it.