Almalinux CoreOS (as Fedora/RH CoreOS flavour)

[cpotter]

Hi to the Almalinux community,

I manage a opensource software company and hope i still have some tech background

Some elements of context
We are distributing a virtual appliance with a lot of opensource software in it, that is historically build on CentOS 7.

We will gradually move to a containerized version, but we know that it will take several years for our customers to accept it.

Our problem
As a an appliance vendor and like for IoT, we are responsible the all software are up to date and the exact same version in all our appliances. This can’t be done with a package based OS, but with an image based OS (sometime called ‘immutable OS’). It gives you atomic updates (online or offline), rollbacks, …

Container Linux OS (Fedora/RH CoreOS, VMWare PhotonOS, …) are using this approach and even a desktop OS (Fedora Silverblue)

For their immutable side, they are all based on OSTree.

We have basic ‘needs’ also, like to have an OS with OpenSCAP profiles and of course running SELinux.

If your are an appliance vendor, an IoT vendor or just need a Container Linux base, you want to have all your running instances with the exact set of binaries, security patches, …

You will tell me, so go for Fedora CoreOS, and it is likely that i reply no, for the same reason we initially choose Almalinux to replace CentOS. In our current understanding, Fedora is still a ‘preview’ of the stable (but commercial) RH CoreOS). I have to say that this answer could be mitigated by the fact that the number of binaries is greatly reduced so the risk of a regression too.

Then here comes the question, is there some plans to make a Almalinux CoreOS, based on OSTree for image based update using a AlmaLinux OSTree repository.

Thank you,
Christopher Potter

[kavishgr]

I was actually looking for the same thing. Core OS is amazing. Hope it happens. I’m gonna ask the same thing on reddit and see what comes up. Cheers.

[boredsquirrel]

Yes indeed, atomic systems with a 1:1 clone-able upstream (not only atomic but also image- or ostree-based) are great.

There is HeliumOS, which is based off Almalinuxes bootc images

Bootc is different from rpm-ostree and supposed to be the future

OSTree systems can also use bootable OCI containers instead of ostree remotes. Those can be easily built, everywhere.

uBlue has built a huge ecosystem of images that way.

Those systems “just work”, their Gaming system bazzite for example.

Bootc only uses these OCI containers.

But there are some other strange limitations.

Anyways, have a look at HeliumOS and how they build the images. This can be done for headless servers too, without problems.

It used Anaconda for installation, and it works great.

CoreOS uses some kind of instruction file that you write, no other way. Fedora IoT also uses ostree and Anaconda.

Here is HeliumOS running on a Chromebook, based on Almalinux 9.4