Over-the-air updates for Linux, done right
Ubuntu Core sets a new standard for Linux device updates, covering the kernel, the OS and applications.
Transactional updates for reliability. Deltas minimize network traffic. Digital signatures guarantee integrity and provenance.
This is the future of smart things.
Reliability
Safely move forwards and backwards
Every update preserves the previous version of code and data, so you can safely move applications forwards and backwards in their version history.
Update streams from channels
Every snap can offer multiple streams of updates - called channels - including the version and maturity -edge, beta, stable- of the snap . Switch to ‘3.2/stable’ and you know what you’ll be getting on that machine.
That means you can go closer to the edge to see what features are coming, experiment with various versions to see which one suits you best, or stick to the recommended stable branch.
Graceful error handling and automatic recovery
Things don’t always work as we want, but snaps have automatic recovery mechanisms. If an error happens at any point during an update, Ubuntu Core will stop and revert to the previous working version of the application.
Efficiency
Delta updates
When you make a small change in a large component, snaps will automatically calculate a binary delta to minimize the traffic and time required to distribute that update.
Compressed and read-only
The content that ships inside snaps is compressed and remains compressed and read-only through the whole life time of the snap, even during normal use after installation. This means the original package digest and signature is never touched.
Safe operating system updates
Resilience and flexibility all the way down.
The kernel and base operating system are handled as snaps as well, so all the benefits that apply to applications also apply to the system foundation. This means not only benefitting from fast and consistent updates to the core, but also graceful error handling with automatic rollbacks on improperly updated kernels.
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