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= About Spectrum
:description: Some words about Spectrum as the operating system, not a project. Highlights the differences between common Linux distributions and Spectrum.
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// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Unikie
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later OR CC-BY-SA-4.0
Spectrum is a Linux-based system that uses the
https://github.com/NixOS/nix[Nix package manager] and
the https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs[Nix Packages collection] (Nixpkgs).
This gives an actively-developed base with good
hardware support, powerful and optimised compartmentalization primitives in
https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page[KVM], and the reproducible packaging
and configuration system that is important
for a maintainable compartmentalized system.
== Why Spectrum
* User data and applications are managed centrally while remaining isolated.
That means that the system can be backed up and managed as a whole, rather than
mixed up in several dozen VMs.
* The host system and isolated environments are managed declaratively and
reproducibly using the Nix package manager.
This can save the user the burden of maintaining many different virtual
computers, allowing finer-grained resource access controls and making it
possible to verify the software running across all environments.
TIP: If you are interested in why we do something _this_ way instead of _that_
way, see xref:../decisions/index.adoc[Architecture Decision Records].
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