"vanilla kubernetes" isn't a distribution either.

> Kubernetes and k3s are both container orchestration platforms

Your article makes it seem like k3s and k8s are different platforms which is simply incorrect.

A more useful comparison would have been to compare k3s with another distribution like EKS, GKE, OKD etc.

i kindly ask again, what is the distribution called that you setup with kubeadm?

you might be fooled by the meaning of the word „distribution“ in the kubernetes vs. linux context.

in the linux context, a distribution would be an opinionated build of user-land tools around the linux kernel which might also bring patches done to the kernel by the distributor.

in the (cloud) kubernetes context, a distribution would be an opinionated (cloud) implementation of core kubernetes binaries (EKS/AKS/etc.pp.) on top of a linux-distribution of your liking.

to my humble understanding k3s is a stripped down and optimized (IMHO opinionated) build of kubernetes binaries derived from the official source.

kubeadm is the official projects (opinionated?) idea of arriving at a vanilla cluster, leaving you with the freedom to make choices for lots of the needed components involved.

in the linux context, „linux from scratch“ would be an analogy I suppose.

more knowledgeable people should please correct me if I‘m wrong in my understanding here.

Upstream