Hi there. I’m currently doing some research on two distributions of kubernetes:

rke2

and

k3s

. So far I’ve found these differences between them: • k3s optimized for edge computing, • k3s has diverged from upstream k8s, while rke2 is much closer to upstream • k3s more lightweight, stripped down for edge computing / rke2 is light but not that light • rke2 security-oriented for FIPS compliance • k3s has better community support • i also noticed k3s really starts as a single binary, and controls cluster components internally via it’s own supervisor, but rke2 actually creates static pods for internal cluster components. Not sure which option is better. Our use case is cloud computing, deploying web applications, data pipelines, etc. We don’t really need all that FIPS compliance, but we also run kubernetes on very powerful nodes, so resources aren’t really an issue. We have about 40 nodes in a single cluster right now, but on the new infrastructure we’ll split them across 5 clusters (for geo-rendundancy, plus complete isolation for some specific apps). We’re deploying the clusters via ansible + kustomize + helm (not helm-controller, just helm template + apply resulting manifest after a short diff/review). Given these facts, what distribution would you run? k3s or rke2? Which do you think has a “brighter” future? Thanks ✌️

Have you seen https://www.suse.com/c/rancher_blog/when-to-use-k3s-and-rke2/ ?

yes, thank you. Besides this article, not much material on the internet.