Vanilla OS 2 Orchid Beta Released, use Hybrid Debian Base

 

Vanilla OS is an immutable operating system. While earlier releases were based on Ubuntu, the current development branch is based on Debian. The latest development snapshot features several other changes.

Vanilla OS, a fixed-release distribution based on Ubuntu with the GNOME desktop, is an immutable operating system. The core parts of the system are locked down to prevent unwanted changes and corruption from third-party applications or a faulty update.

What's New?

Describing everything that has changed in Vanilla OS 2 Orchid would be impossible, as even though it may seem similar to the first version at first glance, under the hood, it's an entirely new world with new technologies, concepts, and standards.

New Wallpaper

Firstly, we have a new wallpaper, designed by our community member hrstwn, who did an excellent job. We are very happy with the results:

Hybrid Debian Base

The system consists of a hybrid base of Debian packages and Vib modules. The major change in Orchid is the switch from Ubuntu to Debian, providing more flexibility and control over the system and update distribution.

Regarding updates, we transitioned from a package-based structure to an OCI image-based structure, using Vib, a technology developed by us. It allows us to assemble OCI images using modules of various types, such as Debian packages, software builds, scripts, etc. It enables us to provide updates in the exact state they got tested, ensuring every user receives the same updates.

ABRoot v2

ABRoot, our implementation of A/B Partitioning, facilitates updates in an immutable system through atomic transactions between two partitions, ensuring a consistently functioning system.

In Vanilla OS 2 Orchid, we introduced ABRoot v2, a complete rewrite of the project designed to be more reliable and faster. Transactions now occur through OCI image expansion instead of applying package updates, ensuring the system receives an exact copy of the tested image.

ABRoot v2 brings additional features, such as the ability to dump the system state for support in case of issues, switching between flavors without data loss by changing the base image, auto-recovery of the ABRoot file system structure, and more.

Driver and System Changes

In ABRoot v1, users could access the transactional shell to make atomic system changes. In ABRoot v2, this feature was removed, and replaced by support for generating custom local images. For example, when installing a driver not present in the system, ABRoot can generate a custom image with the driver installed, similar to a traditional package manager but creating a local OCI image used for updates. While this feature was introduced out of necessity, it is not recommended for daily use and should only be used for driver installations, as it puts the system in an indeterminate state.

To minimize the need for this operation, Vanilla OS now includes a broad set of drivers, covering most peripherals. In some cases, multiple OCI images were created to cover different scenarios (i.e. NVIDIA, VM). During installation, Vanilla OS proposes the most suitable image based on detected hardware.

Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.

Minimum System Requirements
An amd64 64-bit system with UEFI support.
4 GB of RAM.
32 GB of storage (this includes 10 GB for storing your files)

Download the Beta