There’s really a Linux distribution for everyone, it seems. EasyOS sounds like it’s going to be some Debian derivative with a theme or something, but it’s truly something different – in fact, it has such a unique philosophy and approach to everything I barely know where to even start.
Everything in EasyOS runs in containers, in the distribution’s own custom container format, even entire desktop environments, and containers are configured entirely graphically. EasyOS runs every application in RAM, making it insanely fast, and you can save the contents of RAM to disk whenever you want. You can also choose a special boot option where the entire session is only loaded in RAM, with disk access entirely disabled, for maximum security.
Now things are going to get weird. In EasyOS, you always run as root, which may seem like a stupid thing to do, and I’m sure some people will find this offputting. The idea, however, is you run every application as its own user (e.g. Firefox runs as the “firefox” user), entirely isolated from every other user, or in containers with further constraints applied. I honestly kind of like this approach.
If these first few details of what EasyOS is going for tickles your fancy, I really urge you to read the rest of their detailed explanation of what, exactly, EasyOS is going for. It’s an opinionated distribution, for sure, but it’s opinionated in a way where they’re clearly putting a lot of thought into the decisions they make. I’m definitely feeling the pull to give it a try and see if it’s something for me.
I’ve been to this site several times in the past and what strikes me is that, it’s installation process is archaic. I know the owner thinks that ISOs are horrible, but I don’t get to the point were I understand all of his arguments 1) because I don’t care that much, 2) I’m interested in trying out the ideas you expressed in EasyOS in your artcle, but… I’m not going back 25 + years to install a Linux distribution. It was years and years ago when I said to myself, “I’m no longer spending any Saturdays attempting to figure out why this rpm package won’t install (pre-auto dependency resolution),” and I won’t and I don’t. I also do not not intend to start from scratch to install a Linux distribution – from the disk up. EasyOS – of all the names that could have been chosen?
Their webpage is an abomination.
This is what the OS desktop looks like: https://easyos.org/install/images/easyos-desktop.jpg
Yikes.
tux2bsd,
Agreed.
I still have no idea how they compare to other container operating systems like CoreOS (Fedora), or Nix.
A non secondary aspect worth mentioning when evaluating EasyOS is that is mostly a one-man-project and that the author is the same behind Puppy Linux, so some choice are inherited from those, as can be read from https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html
Also:
> Easy is an experimental distribution, and the features may change, and some features are a work-in-progress.
So should be taken for what it is and also appreciated how much effort is done and the achieved results rather than “how different from the usual stuff is”: that’s its value.
Hm. Why not just run Qubes https://www.qubes-os.org/ instead? Especially with a custom container format, that seems like it’s ripe for disappearing when the founder/creator gets tired or bored.