CoreOS has played a particularly major role in Kubernetes, the Google-built open platform for deploying those containerized apps. It's the second-largest contributor to the project beyond Google itself, Red Hat said. Additional tools like Tectonic and Quay have made it easier for big businesses to move and track apps.

You probably won't notice any of the Chrome OS influence at Red Hat. However, this shows just how far Google's web-centric platform has spread. Elements of an OS originally designed for frugal PCs will soon find their way into products from the open source world's biggest business provider -- Google definitely didn't anticipate that.