What is Container-Optimized OS? Alternatives?
Container-Optimized OS is an operating system image for your Compute Engine VMs that is optimized for running Docker containers. With Container-Optimized OS, you can bring up your Docker containers on Google Cloud Platform quickly, efficiently, and securely.
https://cloud.google.com/container-optimized-os/docs
is Google's own operating system specifically designed to run containerized images.
Other alternatives such as
Alpine Linux, Ubuntu/Debian, and the now-discontinued CoreOS, etc.
After RedHat got CoreOS, they ended support for it in 2020. The main alternatives became
- RHEL CoreOS (Red Hat's container operating system for OpenShift)
- Flatcar (which maintains compatibility with CoreOS and is now owned by Microsoft through their acquisition of Kinvolk).
As for AWS, they have Bottlerocket, which is their Linux-based system designed for running containers. Fargate allows users to choose their operating system, including Bottlerocket.
https://www.reddit.com/r/devops/comments/iz4zf9/is_there_an_open_source_container_optimized_os/