Installing VanillaOS 2 stable 20250220 🐧 looking around

Vanilla OS 2.0 (Orchid), released under the version identifier VanillaOS-2-stable.20250220, is a major redesign of the Ubuntu-based immutable Linux distribution, shifting its focus toward a minimalist, desktop-agnostic experience aimed at advanced users and developers. This version utilizes an immutable root filesystem managed by the APEX transactional update system, which guarantees system stability by applying updates in atomic, all-or-nothing transactions that only take effect upon reboot. It features a desktop environment closer to a stock GNOME experience but retains its core containerization technology, apx, which allows users to easily install and manage packages from different Linux distributions (like Debian, Fedora, or Arch) in isolated containers without compromising the integrity of the immutable base system.

The key differences between the previous 1.x series and Vanilla OS 2.0 center on fundamental architectural and technological changes. The previous versions relied heavily on OSTree for managing immutability and used ABRoot for transactional updates. Version 2.0 completely replaces this with the in-house APEX system, designed to simplify the update process, minimize the base image size, and reduce dependencies. Furthermore, 2.0 shifts its desktop base away from Ubuntu's ecosystem to a more upstream-focused Debian/GNOME approach (though it still maintains compatibility), providing a cleaner, less customized desktop environment and a more direct route for developers seeking containerized freedom via the powerful apx package manager.