MicroOS GNOME Desktop Lightning Talk - SUSE Hackweek 20

A Brief introduction into openSUSE MicroOS Desktop, openSUSE's immutable Desktop operating system, and announcing the move of openSUSE MicroOS Desktop (GNOME) from [ALPHA] to [BETA] quality.

Transcript

1. Picture
   openSUSE MicroOS
   Desktop
   Hackweek 20 Progress
   26 MARCH 2021
   

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2. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   2
   Richard
   Brown
   MicroOS Release Engineer
   rbrown@suse.com
   @sysrich
   About Myself
   openSUSE contributor since it began
   SUSE employee since 2013
   Passionate advocate of rolling releases
   Former Customer (Systems Manager), QA Engineer, openSUSE Board Member &
   openSUSE Chairperson
   Currently Linux Distribution Engineer in Future Technology Team focusing on two
   rolling distributions
   openSUSE MicroOS – Single Purpose Self Administering OS
   openSUSE Kubic – MicroOS for Kubernetes & Containers
   Photographer in spare time
   

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3. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   3
   Why is MicroOS?
   Computers are no longer only
   laptops, desktops, and servers.
   People no longer use laptops,
   desktops and servers the same way
   as they used to.
   

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4. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   4
   Regular Linux is
   NOT good enough
   Traditional Linux is like a Swiss Army
   Knife
   Lots of Services & Features
   - with increased chances of
   incompatibilities between services
   - and increased risk of complex
   failures
   

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5. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   5
   openSUSE MicroOS
   openSUSE MicroOS is both
   predictable & immutable. It cannot
   be altered during runtime.
   MicroOS is reliable with automated
   updates and automated recovery
   from faulty updates.
   MicroOS is small with only what is
   needed to run it’s “one job”.
   Applications/Services are expected
   to be Containerised or Sandboxed.
   

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6. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   6
   SLE Micro
   SLE Micro is both predictable &
   immutable. It cannot be altered
   during runtime.
   SLE Micro is reliable with automated
   updates and automated recovery
   from faulty updates.
   SLE Micro is small with only what is
   needed to run it’s “one job”.
   Applications/Services are expected
   to be Containerised.
   

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7. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   7
   MicroOS Architecture
   openSUSE MicroOS is a rolling release
   based on openSUSE Tumbleweed.
   MicroOS is wholly built, developed,
   and tested as part of the
   Tumbleweed release process.
   Any test failure detected before the
   release of either Tumbleweed &
   MicroOS can prevent the release of
   both distributions.
   SLE Micro is a regular release based
   on SUSE Linux Enterprise.
   

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8. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   8
   Transactional
   Updates
   Any change to a system should be
   applied reliably, reproducibly, and
   reversibly.
   Transactional Updates are:
   - Atomic
   - Either fully applied, or not at all
   - Applied without impacting
   the running system
   

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9. Copyright © SUSE 2021
   9
   Rollback
   In the event of a failure/unwanted
   behavioural change
   Immutable: Nothing has changed on
   disk
   Rollback is done by booting an old
   snapshot
   This can be done as often as wanted
   

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10. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    10
    Health Check
    Checks for errors during boot phase
    Error with new snapshot? Rollback to
    last known working snapshot
    Error with already successful booted
    snapshot? Try reboot, else shutdown
    services, inform admin
    Needs access to harddisk
    

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11. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    11
    Toolbox
    MicroOS’ read-only root filesystem
    raises some challenges:
    - Reboot needed to install additional
    tools
    - Situation after reboot is different
    then before
    Toolbox:
    - Launches small, privileged
    container
    - Root filesystem available below
    /media/root
    - zypper to install the necessary tools
    - Persistent between usages
    

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12. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    12
    My openSUSE MicroOS Life
    

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13. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    13
    MicroOS Desktop
    openSUSE MicroOS Desktop is
    MicroOS where the ”one job” is
    running as a Desktop.
    MicroOS Desktop provides only a
    minimal base system with a Desktop
    Environment and Basic Configuration
    Tools ONLY.
    All Applications, Browsers, etc are
    provided by FlatPaks from FlatHub.
    

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14. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    14
    Who is the MicroOS
    Desktop for?
    It is not for everyone. Your Tumbleweed & Leap Desktops are
    Safe :)
    It should be perfect for lazy developers, who no longer want
    to mess around with their desktop and just ”get stuff done”,
    especially if they develop around containers.
    It should also appeal to the same audience now more used
    to an iOS, Chromebook or Android-like experience where the
    OS is static, automated & reliable and the Apps are the
    main thing the user cares about.
    

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15. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    15
    MicroOS Desktop Goals
    MicroOS Desktop should be reliable, predictable &
    immutable, just like regular MicroOS.
    MicroOS Desktop should be less customisable than regular
    openSUSE Tumbleweed/Leap.
    MicroOS Desktop should be small, but not at the expense of
    functionality. Printing, Gaming, Media Production and much
    more should all work.
    MicroOS Desktop should just work “out of the box”.
    

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16. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    16
    MicroOS Desktop Status before Hackweek 20
    MicroOS Desktop should be reliable,
    predictable & immutable, just like regular
    MicroOS.
    MicroOS Desktop should be less customisable
    than regular openSUSE Tumbleweed/Leap.
    MicroOS Desktop should be small, but not at
    the expense of functionality. Printing, Gaming,
    MultiMedia are all valid use cases.
    MicroOS Desktop should just work “out of the
    box”.
    

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17. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    17
    Hackweek 20 Changes
    gnome-branding-MicroOS
    Introduced custom MicroOS
    config for GNOME
    Contains ‘mod-firstboot’ which
    automatically configures flathub
    per user and installs default
    applications from flathub
    PackageKit with txupd and libdnf
    Now uses libdnf and
    transactional-updates for
    updating system RPMs via GNOME
    Software
    Uses GNOME Software for
    installing flatpaks from flathub
    SELinux by default, tuned btrfs
    Deploys with SELinux by Default
    BTRFS now has CoW enabled
    for /home
    

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18. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    18
    MicroOS Desktop Status after Hackweek 20
    MicroOS Desktop should be reliable,
    predictable & immutable, just like regular
    MicroOS.
    MicroOS Desktop should be less customisable
    than regular openSUSE Tumbleweed/Leap.
    MicroOS Desktop should be small, but not at
    the expense of functionality. Printing, Gaming,
    MultiMedia are all valid use cases.
    MicroOS Desktop should just work “out of the
    box”.
    

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19. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    19
    Now in [BETA]
    Available in MicroOS ISO Image 20210326
    - or maybe a little later
    https://microos.opensuse.org/
    

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20. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    20
    Thanks To
    Neal Gompa
    Dario Faggioli
    Sasi Olin
    Tommy, sy_be and others
    

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21. Copyright © SUSE 2021
    21
    Join the Fun
    opensuse-kubic@opensuse.org
    - Mailing list
    #kubic on irc.freenode.net
    - IRC
    openSUSE:Factory & devel:kubic on
    build.opensuse.org
    - Build Service
    

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22. Picture
    Thank you For more information, contact SUSE at:
    +1 800 796 3700 (U.S./Canada)
    +49 (0)911-740 53-0 (Worldwide)
    Maxfeldstrasse 5
    90409 Nuremberg
    www.suse.com
    © 2020 SUSE LLC. All Rights Reserved. SUSE and
    the SUSE logo are registered trademarks of
    SUSE LLC in the United States and other
    countries. All third-party trademarks are the
    property of their respective owners.
    

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