The Red Hat-backed Fedora Project released the latest version of its open source operating system that powers container management, data center operations, and developer workstations.

The Linux-based Fedora OS was initially released in 2003 and is the basis for a number of distribution platforms, including Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux platform and the One Laptop Per Child XO project.

The latest Fedora 26 release includes updated compilers and languages; a new version of its package management system; an updated storage configuration screen for installation programs; and the ability to create bootable SD cards with ARM-based devices.

Specific to the Atomic Host container management platform, Fedora 26 brings containerized Kubernetes as an alternative to built-in Kubernetes binaries. The move allows for running of different versions of the container orchestration engine.

Kubernetes is on a three-month update cycle, with the most recent update, version 1.7, launched late last month. The update focuses on additional security, storage, and extensibility features designed to target enterprises.

The Fedora 26 update also includes the ability to install system infrastructure software in a container; and more control over container buildings, system support, and workload monitoring.

Container-specific operating systems like Fedora allow multiple containers to share the same OS without the need for a hypervisor to oversee each container.

Many container technology companies have their own lightweight operating systems developed specifically for container deployments. Some examples of these lean operating systems include CoreOS, Ubuntu Core, CentOS, RedHat, Rancher OS, VMWare’s PhotonOS, Microsoft’s Nano Server, and Google’s Container-Optimized OS.

Analysts say the leanness of a container OS is needed in order to support the DevOps speed in which companies are looking to launch services.

“Given the scale at which such applications run, it’s important to keep the OS as lean as possible since each unnecessary file will effectively be replicated for each container, which quickly adds up,” Cowen and Company explained in a recent research report. The firm noted this model is also known as “just enough operating system.”

The Fedora Project said it plans to launch Atomic Host updates every two weeks.

For the Fedora 26 Server targeted at data center operations, updates include improved running of security information management solutions in containers and faster resolution of user and group queries.

The Server platform is also set later this month to receive a preview of Fedora’s Boltron modular operating system. Boltron is designed to allow different versions of different applications to run on the same system, allowing for “runtimes to be paired with stable databases.”

The previous Fedora update was released last November, with Fedora 27 set to be released by late October.