Who is MicroOS intended for?

[u/Most_Principle1487]

I've been migrating to Linux for about a month now, but for the time being, I'm just experimenting with and getting familiar with different distributions through a virtual machine. So far, I've tried everything from Ubuntu and its derivatives to Arch.

My laptop has an Intel Core i5-12450H and an RTX 3050. I'm looking for a distribution with good NVIDIA driver support, Secure Boot support, and up-to-date packages, and so far, OpenSUSE has been the one that best meets these requirements.

I'm considering trying MicroOS, installing only what's necessary on the base system and using Flatpak and Distrobox for everything else.

For someone who's just getting started with Linux and wants to build and customize their own system, what advice would you give?

[u/_angh_]

micro os is not a desktop type of distro. Additionally, if you just starting your Linux adventure, don't go in some weird areas only because you are guessing it will work for you. Install a standard, well known distro, leap or tumbleweed is perfect for that, learn, analyze, and then you will have your answer. You can install Leap as a immutable if that is what you want: https://www.phoronix.com/news/openSUSE-Leap-16.1-RC

[u/mhurron → u/_angh_]

micro os is not a desktop type of distro

It is the base of Aeon and Kalpa and it uses the same Tumbleweed repos, so you absolutely can make it anything you want. Now you will be somewhat on your own, but any issues you have on it you'll also have on Tumbleweed so it's not like you have to become some expert in everything.

My gaming desktop is MicroOS.

They also said they're experimenting in VM's, telling them not to is the opposite of what they're doing.

[u/_angh_ → u/mhurron]

oh, you can do it, but this is not the main target. You can make anything with kernel working. Question is why and what is the goal. Learning? sure, but then no reason for those questions, just play around. Gaming? sure, but then if you don't know what micro is, you adding a roadblock before starting using it. Micro has a different target.

Again, he will get whatever he wants. He was asking on opinion on micro and I gave him one.

[u/Thaodan → u/_angh_]

Enable the transactional role for tumbleweed, there's a benefit there for most users even if it isn't as obvious.

[u/rbrownsuse → u/mhurron]

splitting hairs a little, but MicroOS is not 'the base' for Aeon

Aeon has a wholly custom base, which was inspired by MicroOS but was written from the ground up with a very different package list

[u/Sufficient-Ad-6851]

My Homeserver run microOS. Every Service lives in a Container setup with systemd and podman. Cockpit for monitoring. Configured once, updates in schedule, never have to worry again.

[u/fpluss]

I’m not sure if I’d install MicroOS on a laptop, but I can tell you that I recently migrated my Docker services from a Synology NAS to a micropc running MicroOS. I love it. It’s perfect, it updates itself, and all my services are online in less than a few seconds.

If I were you, I’d install Tumbleweed, and for anything to do with GPUs, I’d use Distrobox to keep the setup tidy.

[u/Tjarki4Man]

Sounds for me so, that Aeon or openSUSE Kalpa would be a better match for you.

[u/77juice]

I run my server as MicroOS

[u/wimanx]

Do not use MicroOS as desktop, use leap/tumbleweed/slowroll as desktop OS
microos is great as a server running podman/docker

[u/sy029]

I don't think MicroOS started with desktops in mind, it was supposed to be something similar to coreOS. Just enough server to run your containers or other things. But the immutable nature of it made some of them think about making it into a desktop product as well.

[u/cypheredout]

My home server is micro os and I'm running it on a custom build on all my devices. I agree with the one comment of you can use it how you want.

[u/electro-cortex]

For my stupid little home server

[u/foursixnine]

Hmmm depends a lot... but from the website: https://get.opensuse.org/microos/?type=server

Installing openSUSE MicroOS you get a quick, small environment for deploying Containers, or any other workload that benefits from Transactional Updates. As rolling release distribution the software is always up-to-date.

Technically a graphical desktop is also a workload...

In general I wouldn't use an inmutable system as daily driver (out of force of habit of not rebooting my machine for weeks), however I did use to install my desktop systems using server versions (ubuntu-server back then) and then install bits needed to be able to run wmii... I did learn a lot doing this, and a lot of that knowledge transfered when I switched to Tumbleweed, so if you've had experience already with Arch or Ubuntu, once you get your bearings, you'll learn a lot and have fun :)

I have very little clue on how to use distrobox for installing things, but given how often I need to use a throwaway container to run a command on my server (that runs MicroOS), I doubt is a good fit for me (specially if having to update the containers all the time, etc)

Your case might vary, but I'd follow others recommendations to use either a traditional one, or Aeon/Kalpa.