14 DAY TRIAL // Snappy Ubuntu Core is a new version of Ubuntu, designed to work with transactional updates and aimed at clouds and embedded devices at least for now. A stable version, this new OS has been released by Canonical and joins the other flavors in the 15.04 cycle.
Ubuntu users know that a new version of their favorite operating system is released every six months, with no exceptions. There are quite a few members in the Ubuntu family, and newest ones are Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Snappy Core. One of the things that separated these two releases was the fact that Ubuntu MATE was actually a stable version and Snappy Ubuntu Core wasn't.
The first version of Snappy Ubuntu Core was made available a couple of months ago, but it wasn't really ready for mass adoption. That hasn't stopped developers from all over the world from adopting it as their OS for various projects and embedded devices, but now that pace is sure to increase with a stable version out the door.
Snappy Ubuntu Core has a grandiose future
The impact of Snappy Ubuntu Core is actually much bigger than users might suspect. In fact, it's likely that Ubuntu Touch will bring more to Ubuntu core at some point in the future, and the Snappy packages will also shape the future of the desktop flavor. There is no precise timeframe for these changes, but they are coming.
"Snappy Ubuntu Core is a new rendition of Ubuntu with transactional updates - a minimal server image with the same libraries as today’s Ubuntu, but applications are provided through a simpler mechanism. The snappy approach is faster, more reliable and lets us provide stronger security guarantees for apps and users — that’s why we call them “snappy” applications. Snappy apps and Ubuntu Core itself can be upgraded atomically and rolled back if needed — a bulletproof approach that is perfect for deployments where predictability and reliability are paramount," reads the Ubuntu website.
According to the changelog, the output when doing snappy rollback has been improved, the documentation has been refined, the installation of packages with an unsupported architecture is no longer possible, the error reporting from apparmor has been improved, UEFI support for 32-bit platforms has been fixed, and numerous other fixes have been implemented.
You can find the Snappy Ubuntu Core images in the regular download place on Canonical's servers.