TL;DR

1. brew install colima (colima replaces the docker/dockerd binary)
2. Install the right docker-compose binary for your chipset from the releases page
   • sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.5.1/docker-compose-darwin-aarch64 -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose for M1 Macs
   • chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose to let it execute

You should now be able to run docker-compose up as per normal but without needing Docker Desktop.

Context

Although I am known for loving Docker (the containerization technology), I am also known for being a critic of Docker Desktop (the desktop UI client for Docker) for its poor performance:

Docker Desktop is Docker (the company)'s first wedge into getting you to run proprietary software, so Docker strongly guides you to download it as the only way to get started:

In fact, new users can go pretty far without even realizing that you don't need Docker Desktop to run the Docker daemon. I've asked multiple people how to do it and nobody had a good answer, or at least, nobody had an answer that worked on M1 Macs, until now.

For my 2022 New Mac Setup guide I resolved to figure it out once and for all, and what you see here is what I ended up with!