Recently developers of the openSUSE project unveiled via a blog post the first release of a new edition of the openSUSE distribution, "Leap Micro", based on the work of the MicroOS project.
The openSUSE Leap Micro distribution is marketed as a community version of the commercial SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2, which explains the unusual first version number, 5.2, which was chosen to synchronize the release numbers in both distributions. The openSUSE Leap Micro 5.2 version will be supported for 4 years.
I am pleased to announce that our new Leap Micro 5.2 distribution is now available worldwide…
Let me remind users that the main source of documentation for Leap Micro is the SLE Micro documentation referenced below. The same applies to Leap itself.
About LeapMicro
A key feature of Leap Micro is the atomic update mechanism, which is automatically downloaded and applied. Unlike the ostree and snap based atomic updates used in Fedora and Ubuntu, openSUSE Leap Micro uses a native package manager and snaps mechanism on the FS instead of creating separate atomic images and deploying additional delivery infrastructure, plus live patching is supported to update the Linux kernel without rebooting or suspending work.
We recommend trying our self-install image for VM and host deployments (see demo on download page).
For security reasons, images don't have a root password set, so you'll have to use *ignition or combustion to set it up (unless you're using the offline installer).
The root partition is mounted read-only and does not change during the operation. Btrfs is used as a file system, in which snaps serve as the basis for atomic switching between the system state before and after updates are installed. If you experience problems after applying the updates, you can revert your system to a previous state. To run isolated containers, the toolkit is integrated with Podman/CRI-O and Docker runtime support.
Applications for Leap Micro include use as a base system for container isolation and virtualization platforms, as well as use in decentralized environments and microservices-based systems.
Leap Micro is also an important part of the next-generation SUSE Linux distribution, which plans to split the distribution's core foundation into two parts: a stripped-down "host operating system" to run on top of the hardware, and an application support layer. . focused on running in containers and virtual machines.
People interested in the k3 use case should take a look at Atilla's recent work. Combustion should work on both SLE/Leap Micro and MicroOS. I'd like to consider offering recommended combustion scripts as part of the image download/experience in get-oo.
The new concept implies that the "host operating system" will develop the minimum environment necessary to support and manage the computer, and all applications and user space components will not run in a mixed environment, but in separate containers or virtual machines. that run on top. of the "host operating system" and isolated from each other.
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.
Download and get Leap Micro
Compilations for x86_64 and ARM64 (Aarch64) architectures are available for download, supplied with an installer (offline builds, 370 MB in size) and as ready-to-use boot images: 570 MB (preconfigured), 740 MB (with kernel in real time) ) and 820 MB .
Images can run with Xen and KVM hypervisors, or on hardware, including Raspberry Pi boards. For configuration, you can use the cloud-init toolkit to pass configuration on every boot, or Combustion to set configuration on first boot.