Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation

Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by pknopf on Thursday January 10, 2019 @11:26PM (#18880996)

This is pretty much exactly my project Darch is/does, except that it is truly completely native.

Here are my recipes: https://github.com/pauldotknopf/darch-recipes

You can use either Ubuntu/Arch/Debian/VoidLinux.

My entire operating system is stored on DockerHub. I run "update-machine" from my terminal, grab a snack, come back, reboot, and my machine is updated.

My entire OS has a tmpfs overlay, meaning I can reak havok, and a simple reboot will wipe everything clean. I use "hooks" to mount disks at certain spots (/home, /var/lib/docker, etc) in the initramfs, before chroot.

Also, you can try it out really quickly in VM with a pre-built image: https://pknopf.com/post/2018-11-09-give-ubuntu-darch-a-quick...

I run the same exact image, bit for bit, natively on 3 machines I have (laptop, home and work). Together, with Darch and my dotfiles, my environment is consistent, wherever I go.

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by techntoke on Friday January 11, 2019 @12:55AM (#18881317)

Truth be told Linux should become the de-facto desktop. I like that you specifically mention i3. I think there is a strong use case for a Arch-like Linux distro that has an open architecture for building the entire distro from source into container images automatically. It would also allow desktops to be managed from a cluster manager like K8S. At first I thought packages should go with static binaries for packaging, but then quickly realized that they can use dependency containers and what not to dynamically include libraries with multiple version requirements if necessary, but still allowing for dynamic updates too.

Using container permissions also give you much of the permission structure you'd be looking for in your OS, much like a mobile device. I'm honestly surprised someone hasn't put in the development efforts to create a truly modern distro like Arch in containers for desktop and mobile. I think Purism is working with wlroots for Wayland. I'm looking forward to trying this with SwayWM if I can find the time, money and partners to help me with it.

Also, check out Simula for some AR/VR concepts:

https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by jrudolph on Friday January 11, 2019 @05:46AM (#18882472)

> I think there is a strong use case for a Arch-like Linux distro that has an open architecture for building the entire distro from source into container images automatically.

That's what Fedora Silverblue is all about https://silverblue.fedoraproject.org/

I'm not sure what will happen after IBM's acquisition of RedHat but as far as I remember the last announcement was that Silverblue will get the best bits of CoreOS (in turn acquired by RedHat) and Atomic Workstation.

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by majewsky on Friday January 11, 2019 @04:45AM (#18882125)

> I think there is a strong use case for a Arch-like Linux distro that has an open architecture for building the entire distro from source into container images automatically.

Take a look at NixOS. I'm not sure about containers, but it has `nixos-build build-vm` which builds a VM disk image with your current system configuration.

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by timClicks on Friday January 11, 2019 @02:02AM (#18881548)

That's pretty much what Ubuntu Core and snaps aims to be. A minimal core distro with image-based containers to host applications.

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by lifeisstillgood on Friday January 11, 2019 @04:59AM (#18882223)

>>> This is pretty much exactly my project Darch

Great minds think alike ;-)

Thank you will be checking that out with interest

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Re:Show HN: Docker-based immutable workstation by seabrookmx on Friday January 11, 2019 @02:50AM (#18881679)

Thanks for posting this, it's super cool!

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