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Ubuntu Core
Canonical's minimal, security-hardened, IoT-focused edition of Ubuntu, built entirely around transactionally-updated Snap packages rather than traditional .deb packages.
Embedded & IoTembeddedIoTSnapUbuntu-basedtransactional-updatesDownload ↗Official site ↗Docs / Wiki ↗
Based on
Ubuntu
First released
2014
Package manager
Snap (exclusively -- no traditional .deb packages)
Desktop environments
None (headless IoT/embedded appliance)
Ubuntu Core reimagines Ubuntu specifically for IoT devices and embedded appliances: instead of the usual .deb package system, everything -- the OS itself and every application -- is a transactionally-updatable, sandboxed Snap package, giving devices in the field the same kind of atomic, rollback-capable update model that immutable desktop distributions like Fedora Silverblue apply to desktops. It's designed for unattended, long-lived deployment on hardware that might not see a human administrator for years at a stretch -- gateways, kiosks, digital signage, industrial controllers -- where automatic, reliable, secure updates matter more than day-to-day interactive flexibility. Canonical offers commercial long-term support contracts for Ubuntu Core specifically aimed at device manufacturers shipping it at scale.
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