CoreOS is an open source lightweight operating system based on the Linux kernel and designed for providing infrastructure to clustered deployments, while focusing on automation, ease of applications deployment, security, reliability and scalability. As an operating system, CoreOS provides only the minimal functionality required for deploying applications inside software containers, together with built-in mechanisms for service discovery and configuration sharing. CoreOS is a fork of Chrome OS, by the means of using its software development kit (SDK) freely available through Chromium OS as a base while adding new functionality and customizing it to support hardware used in servers. , CoreOS is actively developed, primarily by Alex Polvi, Brandon Philips and Michael Marineau, with its major features (other than and ) available as a stable release.