Complete Guide to Kubernetes Flavors, Their Categories & How to Install Minikube on Linux (with Docker Driver)

INTRODUCTION

Kubernetes has grown into the most powerful container orchestration system in the world, but it does not exist as a single product. Instead, it exists in multiple flavors, each tailored for different use cases such as enterprise production, hybrid cloud, edge, research, or local development.

This article breaks down the Kubernetes ecosystem into understandable categories and explains each distribution in detail. Toward the end, you will learn how to install Minikube using Docker as the driver, with full explanations of every installation command.

1. Understanding Kubernetes Flavors

• Kubernetes distributions differ primarily in:
• Deployment model (on-prem, cloud, hybrid, edge)
• Support level (commercial vs. community)
• Extra features (UI dashboards, multi-cluster management, security tools, lifecycle automation)
• Operational complexity
• Integration with cloud-native tooling

To make the choice easier, we classify them into four practical categories:

2. Kubernetes Distribution Categories

CATEGORY A — Commercial, Enterprise-Supported Kubernetes Distributions

These are paid Kubernetes platforms built for production workloads, strict compliance, zero-downtime upgrades, global scalability, and enterprise SLAs.

✔ Red Hat OpenShift

Type: Commercial enterprise Kubernetes
Best for: Large enterprises, secure environments, regulated industries
Why it stands out:

• Built on Kubernetes with many enterprise features added
• Includes CI/CD, service mesh, registries, security scanning
• Comes with an opinionated workflow
• Strong multi-cluster management (via ACM)
• Runs on-prem, cloud, or hybrid

OpenShift is essentially “Kubernetes with batteries included,” removing most manual configuration.

✔ VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG)

Type: Commercial enterprise Kubernetes
Best for: VMware-based data centers & enterprises
Key features:

• Deep integration with vSphere
• Automated cluster lifecycle management
• Multi-cloud capability
• Strong enterprise governance and policy automation

TKG is ideal for organizations already invested in VMware infrastructure.

✔ SUSE Rancher Prime (Enterprise Rancher)

Type: Paid, enterprise version of Rancher
Best for: Managing many Kubernetes clusters across different environments
Key benefits:

• Central management plane
• RBAC, audit, monitoring, Istio service mesh
• Integrates with RKE (Rancher Kubernetes Engine)
• Production support included

Rancher simplifies multi-cluster operations for enterprises.

✔ Canonical Kubernetes (Kubeadm + Canonical Support)

Type: Commercial support for upstream Kubernetes
Best for: Businesses using Ubuntu-based infrastructure
Highlights:

• Lightweight and fast
• Comes with long-term support
• Ideal for on-prem and air-gapped setups

This is pure upstream Kubernetes with professional support.

CATEGORY B — CNCF-Certified Open-Source Distributions

(Enterprise-Grade but Free)

These are open-source, production-ready platforms but may require paid support optionally. They follow the CNCF Kubernetes Conformance Program, meaning they behave like true Kubernetes.

✔ Kubernetes (Upstream - K8s The Hard Way)

This is the pure version maintained by CNCF.
No UI, no extras, just Kubernetes.
Suitable for:

• Learning internals
• Highly-custom deployments
• Research

✔ K3s (Lightweight Kubernetes by SUSE)

Why it is unique:

• Extremely small footprint
• Optimized for IoT, Edge & ARM devices
• Single binary installation

K3s is becoming the default Kubernetes for edge computing.

✔ RKE (Rancher Kubernetes Engine)

A Kubernetes distribution maintained by Rancher.
Designed for:

• Simplicity
• Fast bootstrap
• On-prem clusters

RKE is often used together with Rancher for management.

✔ K0s (Zero Friction Kubernetes by Mirantis)

A minimal, single-binary Kubernetes with:

• No OS dependencies
• Very easy deployment
• GitOps support built-in

Favored for edge and Kubernetes appliances.

CATEGORY C — Cloud Provider Kubernetes Services

(Managed Kubernetes)

These are Kubernetes platforms offered fully as a service. The cloud provider maintains:

• control plane
• security patches
• upgrades
• availability

You only manage worker nodes and workloads.

✔ Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

AWS's managed Kubernetes with:

• High availability control plane
• Native integration with IAM, VPC, Load Balancers, ECR
• Auto-scaling across AZs

Used heavily in production due to AWS's ecosystem.

✔ Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Google created Kubernetes, so GKE is:

• The most mature managed Kubernetes
• Very stable, very scalable
• Offers autopilot mode (serverless Kubernetes)

Often considered the best managed Kubernetes in the industry.

✔ Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Strongly integrated with Azure Cloud with:

• AAD authentication
• Azure Monitor
• Automated node scaling
• Windows container support

Ideal for enterprises using Microsoft environments.

✔ Oracle OKE, IBM IKS, DigitalOcean DOKS

All offer:

• Managed control planes
• Autoscaling
• Node pools
• Cloud-native integrations These are great for teams who want Kubernetes without managing infrastructure.

CATEGORY D — Local Developer-Focused Kubernetes Options

These are for learning, testing, and local development.

✔ Minikube

A lightweight single-node Kubernetes cluster
Runs on:

• Windows
• Linux
• macOS

It supports multiple drivers (VirtualBox, Docker, Hyper-V).

✔ Kind (Kubernetes IN Docker)

Allows spinning up Kubernetes clusters inside Docker containers.
Best for:

• CI/CD
• Testing multiple cluster versions

MicroK8s

Canonical’s single-node Kubernetes
Good for:

• Local development
• Edge computing
• High availability (with clustering enabled)

3. Summary Table: Kubernetes Distribution Categories

4. Installing Minikube (Using Docker as the Driver)

Below is a complete guide. Every command is followed by a detailed explanation.

Minikube allows you to run a local Kubernetes cluster on your machine and is ideal for:

• learning Kubernetes
• testing applications before deploying
• experimenting with operators and CRDs

Step-by-Step Setup (Ubuntu/WSL)

When working with Kubernetes locally, Minikube is one of the most popular tools to spin up a lightweight cluster. If you are using Windows and Visual Studio Code, the most reliable way to prepare your environment is by leveraging the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This ensures you have a proper Linux shell inside Windows, which makes installing and running Minikube seamless.

Step 1: Install WSL
Begin by opening PowerShell as Administrator and running:

wsl --install

This command installs WSL along with a default Linux distribution (usually Ubuntu). After installation, restart your machine to finalize the setup.

Step 2: Connect VS Code to WSL

Open Visual Studio Code and install the Remote – WSL extension. This allows you to connect directly to your Ubuntu environment from within VS Code. Once connected, you’ll be working inside a Linux terminal without leaving your Windows setup.

Step 3 — Update your package index

sudo apt update

Explanation:
This command refreshes Ubuntu’s knowledge of available packages.
It does not upgrade anything; it only updates the package list.

Step 4 — Install Docker (Recommended Driver for Minikube)

sudo apt install docker.io
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

Explanation:

• sudo apt install docker.io installs Docker CE from Ubuntu repos
• sudo systemctl start docker starts the Docker service
• sudo systemctl enable docker ensures Docker automatically starts on boot

Docker is the recommended Minikube driver because:

• it is lightweight
• fast
• easy to manage
• integrates smoothly with Kubernetes workloads

Step 5 — Download Minikube Binary

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube-linux-amd64
sudo install minikube-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/minikube

Explanation:

• curl -LO downloads the latest Minikube binary
• sudo install places it into /usr/local/bin and makes it executable

After this, you should be able to run the command:

minikube version

Step 6 — Install kubectl (The Kubernetes CLI) Properly

Kubernetes changed its repo structure in 2023–2024, so older tutorials are broken.
Here is the correct method:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg

These packages allow secure HTTPS repository management.

Add the new Kubernetes signing key:

curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.34/deb/Release.key \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg

Explanation:
Downloads the GPG key and converts it to a format apt can use for validating packages.

Add the Kubernetes repository

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] \
  https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.34/deb/ /" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

Explanation:
Creates a new repo file so Ubuntu knows where to fetch kubectl.

Install kubectl

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y kubectl

Step 7 — Start Minikube with Docker

minikube start --driver=docker

What this does:

• Initializes Minikube
• Uses Docker as the virtualization layer
• Creates a Linux VM-like environment inside Docker
• Deploys a full single-node Kubernetes cluster

After successful startup, you can verify:

kubectl get nodes

Note: if you just installed Minikube and Docker, you might need to restart your terminal or run :

eval $(minikube -p minikube docker-env)

Then the following Code in this order:

minikube start --driver=docker
kubectl config use-context minikube
minikube status
kubectl get nodes

Conclusion

Kubernetes has evolved into a rich ecosystem with many flavors, each optimized for different environments—from enterprise production (OpenShift, Tanzu, Rancher Prime) to cloud-managed solutions (AKS/EKS/GKE) and lightweight edge platforms (K3s, K0s).

However, for local learning and experimentation, Minikube remains the best starting point.
The installation guide provided above ensures that you set it up using the most reliable driver—Docker—while following best practices for installing kubectl.