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<a class="brand" href="https://vmware.github.io/photon"><h1>
Photon OSâ„¢
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by VMware, Inc.
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<a href="#what-is-photon">What is Photon OSâ„¢</a>
<a href="#getting-photon">Getting Photon OSâ„¢</a>
<a href="#getting-started">Getting Started</a>
<a href="#support">Support</a>
<a href="#contributors">Contributors</a>
<a href="#contributing">Contributing</a>
<a href="#license">License</a>
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<a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon"><img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/e7bbb0521b397edbd5fe43e7f760759336b5e05f/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f6769746875622f726962626f6e732f666f726b6d655f72696768745f677265656e5f3030373230302e706e67" alt="Fork me on GitHub" data-canonical-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/github/ribbons/forkme_right_green_007200.png" /></a>
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<h2 id="vmware-photon">VMware Photon OSâ„¢</h2>
<p>Minimal Linux Container Host</p>
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Photonâ„¢
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<h2 id="what-is-photon">What is Photon OSâ„¢</h2>
<p>Photon OSâ„¢ is a technology preview of a minimal Linux container host. It is designed to have a small footprint and boot extremely quickly on VMware platforms. Photon OSâ„¢ is intended to invite collaboration around running containerized applications in a virtualized environment.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Optimized for vSphere</strong> - Validated on VMware product and provider platforms.</li>
<li><strong>Container support</strong> - Compatible with Docker, rkt, and the Pivotal Garden container specifications.</li>
<li><strong>Efficient lifecycle management</strong> - Contains a new, open-source, yum-compatible package manager that will help make the system as small as possible, but preserve the robust yum package management capabilities.</li>
</ul>
<p>See the <a href="/photon/assets/files/photon_faqs.pdf">FAQ</a> for more information.</p>
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<h2 id="getting-photon">Getting Photon OSâ„¢</h2>
<p>If you want a quick and easy way to install Photon OSâ„¢ just about anywhere, you can grab one of the pre-built ISO images:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/iso/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-1.0TP2.iso" target="_blank">Photon OS, Tech Preview 2 — Full ISO</a> - Contains everything you could need to install Photon OS, including rpm-ostree hosts and servers.</li>
<li><a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/iso/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-minimal-1.0TP2.iso" target="_blank">Photon OS, Tech Preview 2 — Minimal ISO</a> - Smaller download for when you just need the container host components.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you'd like to use Photon OS on VMware Fusion, Workstation, or vSphere, you can either create a VM and install from the ISO, above, or try importing the Photon OS OVA, found <a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/ova/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-1.0TP2.ova" target="_blank">here</a>. The OVA, in addition to providing a simple way to get up and running, contains some enhancements that make Photon OS boot faster and run more efficiently.</p>
<p>If you'd like to use Photon OS on vCloud Air, look for Photon OS in the public catalog.</p>
<p>If you'd like to experiment with Photon OS on other IaaS providers, here are some experimental versions in native formats of popular cloud providers:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/ami/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-1.0TP2.tar.gz" target="_blank">Amazon Web Services</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/gce/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-1.0TP2.tar.gz" target="_blank">Google Cloud Engine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/azure/1.0TP2/x86_64/photon-1.0TP2.vhd" target="_blank">Microsoft Azure</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The images are distributed under the <a href="https://vmware.github.io/photon/assets/files/photon_tech_preview_license_agreement.pdf" target="_blank">VMware Technology Preview License Agreement</a>. Open source license information may be found in Photon OSâ„¢ <a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/iso/1.0TP2/x86_64/open_source_license_photon_1.0TP2_08272015.txt" target="_blank">Open Source License</a> file.</p>
<p>Photon OSâ„¢ source code is available on the VMware <a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon">Photonâ„¢ GitHub source repository</a>. You can build your own Photon OSâ„¢ ISO image by cloning the repo and following the instructions in <a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon/blob/master/README.md" target="_blank">README.md</a>.</p>
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<h2 id='getting-started'>Getting Started</h2>
<p>We've provided a few guides to help get you started:</p>
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<p><strong>Photon OSâ„¢ on VMware Fusion</strong></p>
<div><a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Running-Project-Photon-on-Fusion" target="_blank" class="button">Get Started</a></div>
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<p><strong>Photon OSâ„¢ on VMware vSphere 5.5<br /> and 6.0</strong></p>
<div><a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Running-Project-Photon-on-vSphere" target="_blank" class="button">Get Started</a></div>
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<p><strong>Photon OSâ„¢ on Google Compute Engine</strong></p>
<div><a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Running-Photon-OS-on-Google-Compute-Engine" target="_blank" class="button">Get Started</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<p><strong>Photon OSâ„¢ on vCloud Air</strong></p>
<div><a href="https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Running-Project-Photon-on-vCloud-Air" target="_blank" class="button">Get Started</a></div>
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<h2 id="support">Support</h2>
<p>Photon OSâ„¢ is released as open source software and comes with no commercial support.</p>
<p>But since we want to ensure success and recognize that Photon OSâ„¢ consumers might fall into a range of roles - from developers that are steeped in the conventions of open-source to customers that are more accustomed to VMware commercial offerings, we offer several methods of engaging with the Photon OSâ„¢ team and community.</p>
<p>For our developer community, feel free to join our Google groups at <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21forum/vmware-photon-dev" target="_blank">vmware-photon-os-dev</a></p>
<p>For more general user questions, visit the Photon OSâ„¢ user forum in our <a href="http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/devops/project-photon" target="_blank">Photon OSâ„¢ VMware Community</a>.</p>
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<h2 id='contributors'>Contributors</h2>
<p>
<a title="Krishna Ganugapati" href="https://github.com/kganugapati"><img alt="Krishna Ganugapati" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11167611?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Sriram Nambakam" href="https://github.com/snambakam"><img alt="Sriram Nambakam" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/10917504?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Touseef Liaqat" href="https://github.com/toliaqat"><img alt="Touseef Liaqat" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/6778940?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Sharath George" href="https://github.com/sharathjg"><img alt="Sharath George" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11167586?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Priyesh Padmavilasom" href="https://github.com/ppadmavilasom"><img alt="Priyesh Padmavilasom" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11167452?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Mahmoud Bassiouny" href="https://github.com/mbassiouny"><img alt="Mahmoud Bassiouny" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11181222?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Divya Thaluru" href="https://github.com/dthaluru"><img alt="Divya Thaluru" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11169145?v=3" />
</a>
<a title="Greg Murray" href="https://github.com/gregmmurray"><img alt="Greg Murray" src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11306358?v=3" />
</a>
</p>
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<h2 id="contributing">Contributing</h2>
<p>The Photon project team welcomes contributions from the community. If you wish to contribute code, we require that you first sign our <a href="/photon/assets/files/vmware_cla.pdf">Contributor License Agreement</a> and return a copy to <a href="mailto:osscontributions@vmware.com">osscontributions@vmware.com</a> before we can merge your contribution.</p>
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<h2 id="license">License</h2>
<p>Photonâ„¢ is comprised of many open source software components, each of which has its own license that is located in the source code of the respective component as well as documented in the <a href="https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon/iso/1.0TP1/x86_64/open_source_license_photon_1.0TP1_04202015.txt">open source license file</a> accompanying the Photonâ„¢ distribution.</p>
<p>The Photonâ„¢ pre-built ISO images are distributed under the <a href="/photon/assets/files/photon_tech_preview_license_agreement.pdf">Photonâ„¢ Technology Preview License Agreement</a>.</p>
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