That's a very valid question and one we also asked ourselves before taking on the task. There are three main considerations that made us feel this is doable. Firstly, Flatcar is a minimal Linux distro, with more effort made to reduce the number of packages rather than expand. Secondly, Flatcar has not only Container Linux as an upstream, but also Gentoo, which is also a common upstream for Chrome OS and Container-optimized Linux, so well tended to. Thirdly, the technologies (kernel, systemd, containers, low-level Linux userspace) are our core focus as a company. These three considerations are what led us to feel confident in picking up the project and have the motivation to do so.

The way I personally see it, if you were ok with using an OS from a team of veteran Linux/open-source contributors in 2013 you should be ok with using one from a team of veteran Linux/open-source contributors in 2018. But this time it's from a team that does not take venture funding.

Lastly, it is telling that the ppl that have the most confidence in us pulling this off are the ppl we've worked with as clients or through open source collaborations. We're happy to start there and prove ourselves along the way to other.