Initially inspired by Arch Linux, AshOS uses an immutable (read-only) root filesystem to set itself apart from any other distro out there.
Software is installed and configured into individual snapshot trees, which can then be deployed and booted into.
It does not invent yet another package format or package manager, but instead relies on the native package manager for instance [pacman](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman) from Arch.
Generality: As we want the most common denominator between distros, when there is a choice between convenience and comprehensiveness/generality, we go with the latter. To clarify with an example, it might be easier to use grub-btrfs instead of implementing our own GRUB update mechanism, but because that particular package might not be available in all distros, we develop an AshOS specific solution. This way, we can potentially cater to any distro in future!