Wow, thank you for this, I had no idea. What a mess made by this acquisition, reusing the name of a deprecated product isn't really a great idea. Though I'm glad to know there are ways to go back to a CoreOS-like experience, that has been my favorite server setup for a while.
Agreed, the original CoreOS is by far my favorite server OS so far. I was very sad to see it get sold to RedHat, though few other people shared my concern at the time[0]. I wish I could say my concern turned out to be unjustified, but alas here we are.
I do recommend Flatcar linux though, and strongly encourage everyone to check it out. Not as jazzed about the name, but what’s in a name?
Thanks again!