openSUSE MicroOS: a system that does not update while running
source: microos.opensuse.org
Why it is worth attention: MicroOS inverts the order an administrator is used to. An update is not unpacked into the running system but into a new btrfs snapshot that becomes active on reboot – and if it goes wrong, it is rolled back the same way. Applications are not installed into the root filesystem; they run in containers beside it.
What to take from it: rollback stops being a discipline you have to prepare in advance and becomes a property of the system. The price is that the usual “I will just fix it on the running machine” stops being a way of working – read that as a limitation or as a guarantee.