Flatcar

Flatcar is a Linux operatingation system designed for running containerized applications. It is a fork of CoreOS Container Linux, a popular operating system for running containers that was discontinued by Red Hat. Flatcar aims to provide a stable, secure, and minimal operating system for cloud-native workloads.

One of the core principles of Flatcar is its immutability. This means that the root filesystem is read-only and cannot be modified after deployment. Updates are delivered as atomic, transactional upgrades, ensuring that the system remains in a consistent and reliable state. This approach simplifies management and reduces the risk of configuration drift and unexpected behavior.

Flatcar is designed for automation and is often provisioned using tools like cloud-init, Terraform, or Ansible. It includes a minimal set of pre-installed software, focusing on the essentials needed for container runtimes like Docker or containerd. This small footprint contributes to its security and performance.

The project is community-driven and aims to provide a transparent and open development process. It is suitable for a wide range of use cases, including deploying microservices, running Kubernetes clusters, and building edge computing solutions where stability and manageability are paramount. Flatcar offers different release channels to cater to varying needs for stability and access to the latest features.