After two years of development, Vanilla OS has published the release of a custom distribution Vanilla OS 3, based on the Debian package base but going beyond the usual rebuild. The system environment in Vanilla OS is mounted read-only and updated atomically, with applications running in separate containers using a layer based on the Distrobox toolkit. Users are offered an unmodified GNOME environment, supplied in its original form by the developers. Custom graphical configurators are written in GTK4 using Libadwaita. The iso image size is 1.8 GB (x86_64, arm64).
For atomic system updates, the project is developing a toolkit ABRoot, which creates two identical root partitions – active and passive. Updates are downloaded in their entirety and installed on the passive partition, with partition swapping occurring after a reboot. Updates are checked and installed automatically in the background during periods of minimal system load and when sufficient battery power is available. Additional applications are installed in separate containers using its package manager apx, allowing packages from different distributions to be installed in isolated sandbox environments.
The package manager is implemented as a wrapper over the Distrobox toolkit, enabling quick installation and running of any Linux distribution in a container and ensuring integration with the main system. The format of container-based packages (Flatpak, Snap, or Appimage) is selected at the first launch. The VSO (Vanilla System Operator) toolkit is being developed for system administration, enabling tasks such as updating the system, changing settings, and creating task-oriented actions. This also allows the running of Android applications using the Waydroid toolkit.
In the new version: