MicroOS - A new Immutable Linux Desktop by OpenSUSE

You have been warned! Traditional Linux is dying, and you’re dying with it too! You think you’re cool because you run Arch and Gentoo? You’re just Linux supreme noobs! This time is Micro OS arriving on desktop! It’s a containerized system based on OpenSUSE, and similar to Silverblue it is designed with an immutable base image on runtime. Since the system is read only, Micro OS uses transactional-updates that are atomic. And Butter FS (BTRFS) for snapshost and rollbacks. That last, is a main difference with Silverblue that creates Git-Like commits on software level with OSTree library, and currently has much more capabilities. But a big similarity with Silverblue is that in a case of an update, or even a new installation of an individual package, we should restart the system and mount the newly created image for changes to take effect. In this case GIMP.

01:13 - And while we can push packages on base image like that, MicroOS is designed to work with containers and Flatpaks. Which bring us to the main event of the video. It’s not an accident that Red Hat, Intel, OpenSUSE, Purism, Endless, elementary and pretty much everyone else, is going with Flatpaks. And it is neither an accident that heavy software based companies like Mercedes, Porsche, Tesla and others, are using traditional containers for the in car computers. There is virtually nowhere Snap. So before you update or install Ubuntu, you should know that it will be a time not long from now, you will lose all your workflow and your Snaps! And I’ll be there to proudly say to you! I told you so! Back to Micro OS, and we have two choices to get it.

02:07 - The first and preferred method is with the Tumbleweed rolling release, and I so wish Silverblue had that too! Or you can also get the boring Leap, which by the way is tagged as an experimental release. Speaking of experimental, you may previously noticed the missing GNOME icons. All those systems are maintaining very small base images, although forgetting to add Adwaita icons looks like amateur work to be honest. Point is, everything you see is everything we get by default, at least currently. Which is more or less the same like Silverblue, with the difference that Silverblue comes pre-loaded with lots of Flatpaks! To be fair though, on Micro installation it clearly states that both GNOME and Plasma desktops are on alpha support.

02:57 - And also noticed that in GNOME we can use Software for updates, and Discover on Plasma. And one more thing is the default Podman runtimes, so similarities with Silverblue workflows are very strong! And of course everything leads to the question. For whom Micro OS was made for? According to Richard Brown, MicroOS release engineer and former chairman at OpenSUSE, MicroOS is not for everyone… But it should be perfect for lazy developers, and people that are used to Android, Chromebooks and such experience. So actually? Micro OS is for everyone, and Tumbleweed and Leap desktops are deader than dead! .