VMware has published its Linux-distribution release called Photon OS 5.0, which aims to provide a minimalistic host environment for launching applications in isolated containers. The project is suitable for deploying industrial applications, including additional elements for strengthening security and offering extended optimisation for the surroundings VMware VSPhere, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Elastic Compute and Google Compute Engine. The initial texts of the components designed for Photon OS can be found under the library libtdnf, which is open source under the LGPLV2.1 license. Ready ISO- and OVA-images are supplied for systems x86_64, ARM64, Raspberry Pi and various cloud platforms under a separate user agreement (Eula).
The system supports the launch of most container formats, including Docker, Rocket and Garden, and supports container orchestration platforms such as Mesos and Kubernetes. To control the software and installation of updates, the background process PMD (Photon Management Daemon) and its own TDNF tools, compatible with the package manager Yum, are offered, providing a model for managing the lifecycle of a distribution based on packages. The system also provides tools for a simple transfer of containers of applications from developers (for example, which uses VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation) to working cloud environments.
Systemd is used to manage system services, and the core is assembled with optimisations for the VMWare GaperVizer and includes safety settings recommended by the KSPP (Kernel Self-Protection Project) project. When assembling packages, the compiler options that increase safety are involved. The distribution is formed in three editions: minimum (538MB, it includes only basic system packages and Runtime for launching containers), assembly for developers (4.3GB, includes additional packages for the development and testing of programs delivered in containers), and for tasks working in real-time (683MB, contains the nucleus with Preempt_RT patches for launching Realtime Applications).
Key improvements in the release of Photon OS 5.0 include the addition of support for file systems XFS and BTRFS.