Intel announced a project to transition Clear Linux into a distribution with strict application isolation using containers separated through full virtualization. As of today, Intel will no longer provide updates and security patches for Clear Linux, with development on GitHub soon moving to an archival status.
Clear Linux users are advised to migrate to other distributions. Intel will continue to support the Linux ecosystem and contribute to various open projects and Linux communities to enhance support for their hardware and optimize performance. It is anticipated that employees working on Clear Linux may be part of a major layoff at Intel, with the company planning to reduce its workforce by 5,000.
A core aspect of Clear Linux includes a minimal set of tools for running containers, updated through BTRFS working snapshots. Applications are packaged as Flatpaks or sets running in isolated containers. Each container contains a specially optimized version of Clear Linux tailored for the specific application.
The distribution’s version encompasses the state of all its components, ensuring any changes affect the overall version number. The system operates in a stateless manner, generating settings based on specified templates at launch rather than containing pre-configured settings in the /etc directory after installation.
Kata Containers technology plays a role in container isolation, achieving minimal launch times and reduced memory usage similar to standard containers by leveraging mechanisms like dax for direct filesystem access and the ksm (kernel Shared Memory) technology for memory deduplication.