An update about Container Linux

[Rob Szumski]

Hi everyone,

As announced on Jan. 30, CoreOS has been acquired by Red Hat. While we included information in the Red Hat FAQ about impact on our projects, we want to clarify what it means for Container Linux.

Container Linux will join Fedora and CentOS as other Linux projects with maintainers from Red Hat. Container Linux was CoreOS's first project to have automated updates and a large part of Red Hat's interest in CoreOS is the expertise in building projects and products that help reduce operational complexity through automation.

An FAQ entry about Container Linux, quoted below, notes that the only Linux OS that Red Hat plans to sell commercial subscriptions for are those derived directly from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Container Linux has always been a free offering and we do not foresee that changing. Red Hat plans to continue Container Linux’s development. In fact, similar to how innovations from Fedora fold into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we may see innovations from Container Linux, like the update delivery mechanism, fold in as well.

Q. How do CoreOS’s products complement Red Hat’s commercial offerings?

CoreOS’s offerings complement Red Hat’s container solutions in a number of ways:

Container Linux and its investment in container-optimized Linux and automated “over the air” software updates are complementary to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host and Red Hat’s integrated container runtime and platform management capabilities. Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s content, the foundation of our application ecosystem will remain our only Linux offering. Whereas, some of the delivery mechanisms pioneered by Container Linux will be reviewed by a joint integration team and reconciled with Atomic.

Rob Szumski

Product Manager - CoreOS