Rancher Labs, creator of the Rancher Kubernetes management system and the RancherOS container-centric Linux distribution, has announced a new Kubernetes distro built to be slender and simple.

K3s, as it’s called—a play on “K8s,” a common abbreviation for Kubernetes—is aimed mainly at the edge computing and standalone device markets, but can also support scenarios such as a self-contained Kubernetes-powered app distribution. The x86-64, ARM64, and ARMv7 platform architectures are all supported.

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K3s uses a variety of techniques to squeeze a Kubernetes distribution into 512 MB of RAM, using a single 40 MB binary. K3s omits many features that bloat up most Kubernetes distributions, such as rarely used plug-ins, and consolidates the various functions of a Kubernetes distribution into a single process. Nevertheless, Rancher Labs claims K3s passes CNCF’s “Certified Kubernetes Distribution” tests.

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