The best alternative to Docker Desktop on macOS is to abandon the GUI entirely use colima to create the linux VM.
brew install colima docker docker-buildx docker-completion docker-compose
export DOCKER_HOST="$HOME/.colima/docker.sock" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
colima start --cpus 8 --vz-rosetta --ssh-agent --mount $HOME:w
then add this line to your $HOME/.docker/config.json "cliPluginsExtraDirs": ["/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"],
that will get you a fast virtiofs VM with the latest docker, including compose and buildx. it may seem scary to replace an officially blessed tool like Docker Desktop, but i have had zero issues with colima. it isn't "docker compatible". it's docker. just need to run `brew upgrade` and `colima update` every once in a while to keep it up to date.