The Ubuntu Core is already in use in top-of-rack switches, industrial gateways, home gateways, radio access networks, digital signage, robots and drones. “The Ubuntu Core secures the Internet of Things and provides an app store for every device,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and Canonical.
The Core delivers a combination of security, management, operations and upgradability in a compact, developer-friendly platform, thanks to its use of read only ‘snap’ packages. These packages are securely confined, tamper-proof application images, digitally signed to the integrity of IoT software.
“As companies continue to embrace IoT solutions, security and quick, easy system updates are critical,” said Jason Shepherd, Director of Strategy and Partnerships, IoT, Dell. “Dell has been working with Canonical on Ubuntu Core for over a year, and our Dell Edge Gateways are fully certified for Ubuntu Core 16.”
According to Canonical Update Control will allow software publishers and manufacturers to validate updates across the ecosystem before they are applied. Snap updates are transactional, which means that failures are automatically rolled back, giving developers the confidence to update their applications regularly.
The operating system and kernel in Ubuntu Core are also delivered as snaps, so the entire platform is transactionally upgradeable while all Ubuntu Core devices, from all manufacturers, will have free, regular and reliable OS security updates.
Device manufacturers can choose from a wide range of chipset, SoC and Single Board Computer vendors supporting Ubuntu Core, such as the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, the Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c and the Intel Joule.