The Linux operating system has reached a major milestone in its evolution. Adoption of image based architecture and containerization, Linux now has an uncanny level of robustness and the ability to run a vast number of applications and tools. You may have heard the term "immutable Linux" used to describe the new style, but the truth is far more nuanced and layered. Here is the deeper story.
The Era of Atomic Linux explores how desktop Linux is breaking into a new realm, with freedoms and powers far exceeding the other major operating systems. It is ultra reliable and stable, can keep itself updated, and run any application from any distribution. The new Linux has even been called "distroless" as it leaves behind the old concept of distributions.
The Era of Atomic Linux tells the story of how image based Linux was created, the problems it solves, and how it represents a new breakout computing technology. We follow a trend which began among enterprise Linux developers simply trying to make their internet servers and industrial apps more reliable, but ended up remaking a whole operating system!
The author takes you on a journey across several years of changes in Linux as he shifted his daily computing tools from conventional Linux to enjoy the power, security, and versatility of the new image based Linux.
Read The Era of Atomic Linux today!
As enterprise Linux developers made incremental progress improving the stability and reliability of their systems, four essential attributes of the best configurations emerged. They are atomicity, transactionality, declarativity, and immutability.
Atomicity means that upgrades are accomplished in a manner such that the process is completely successful or the whole upgrade is deemed unsuccessful and the target reverts back to its original state. There are no partial upgrades. Removals are completely clean, leaving no trace of a removed package. Users of systems with atomicity can be confident that they will not suffer disruptions or annoyances due to failed upgrades. Atomicity is often a feature for the root filesystem, or its software packages, but the concept can work just as well for applications users may separately install.
One way to achieve atomicity is for package managers to install applications and their dependencies, but tolerate multiple versions by keeping them separated. Atomic package management means packages are never mixed, overwritten, or partially installed. In other words, atomic package management prevents conflicts by giving each version of a package a unique directory on the system, and uses links to make them reachable. Links are similar to shortcuts on the Windows desktop: symbols which represent and point to an item, which is actually located somewhere else. Anything on the system trying to use a certain version of a package will find it via the appropriate link; anything which depends on a different version will simply get a different link, pointing to that other version. Nix and Guix are the best known package managers (and operating systems) which eliminated dependency conflicts by utilizing chains of links to independent packages.
Another path to atomicity is to keep two versions, or "images," of the root filesystem: one known good version, for the running system, and another, which will serve as the upgraded filesystem. If an upgrade attempt is successful, the new image can be designated as the working version for the system to run on, while the older image can be slated to receive the next upgrade. The upgrade process could involve receiving dozens of atomic package upgrades or one single download of a whole system image, with its packages already installed and validated.
Declarativity is the third attribute of super robust Linux. It exists when all of the applications, libraries, and configurations are listed in a specification document, which is a sort of recipe for an operating system. Using the declaration, any number of users could independently build Linux systems exactly matching the one modeled in the declaration. They would all look and behave the same, having the same software versions and settings, from top to bottom. In the case of containerized Linux, the builds may be absolutely bit perfect reproductions. Entropy is thereby minimized.
On a declarative operating system, the users are not required to tweak, tamper, or fiddle with the system to configure it for its intended type of work. It arrives ready to run immediately, as advertised.
Declarative systems have resilience. When system improvements are to be shared downstream, the maintainer's task is to update, verify the quality, and then publish a fresh declaration for others to use. A declaration may be used by individuals in the community, who download it from a trusted source. On image based Linux systems, a declaration may be used to build a whole filesystem, which is then deployed for the end users. If users ever need to revert their systems back to an earlier working state, all that is necessary is to either switch or "rebase" to a better image, or rebuild based an older working system declaration. In my most humble opinion, that is a minor task in comparison to the terrible messes which can happen on conventional Linux systems.
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