do it

Signed-off-by: Ikey Doherty <[email protected]>

docs/blog/posts/prealpha0-released.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+---
+title: "Serpent OS Prealpha0 Released"
+date: 2024-08-01T01:18:07+00:00
+draft: false
+type: "post"
+authors: [ikey]
+categories: [news]
+---
+
+Well, it didn't take us that long, **really** ... Our technical preview, *prealpha0*, is now available for testing!
+
+![wip boot code](../../static/img/blog/prealpha0-released/prealpha0.png)
+
+<!--more-->
+
+This is a super rough version of Serpent OS that is *capable* of being installed on baremetal hardware and VMs that
+support UEFI and OpenGL acceleration. It is however not *recommended* for use daily due to the early nature and a bunch
+of packages being wildly out of date. It features a minimal GNOME desktop with the Firefox web browser and a terminal.
+
+Right now it contains a CLI installer that can be accessed from the terminal by typing:
+
+```bash
+sudo lichen
+```
+
+To detract from casual use it is necessary to manually partition the disk before running the (net) installer. You can use
+`fdisk` to create a GPT disk with a (mandatory) `EFI System Partition` and an optional `XBOOTLDR` partition. This currently
+also needs to be FAT32 until we integrate systemd-boot driver support. Lastly of course you will need a large enough root
+partition.
+
+You will need a working network connection, so make sure you're connected before starting the installer!
+
+
+## Technologies involved
+
+This will of course appear to be a very rough (crap) prealpha ISO. Underneath the surface it is using the [moss](https://github.com/serpent-os/moss)
+package manager, our very own package management solution written in Rust. Quite simply, every single transaction in moss generates
+a new filesystem tree (`/usr`) in a staging area as a full, stateless, OS transaction.
+
+### moss
+
+When the package installs succeed, any *transaction triggers* are run in a private namespace (container) before finally activating
+the new `/usr` tree. Through our enforced stateless design, `usr-merge`, etc, we can atomically update the running OS with a single `renameat2`
+call.
+
+As a neat aside, all OS content is deduplicated, meaning your last system transaction is still available on disk allowing offline rollbacks.
+
+Translated: Like A/B swaps? Don't like rebooting? ... Ok that explained it.
+
+### blsforme
+
+A few crates deep we find [blsforme](https://github.com/serpent-os/blsforme) - a library for automatically managing the ESP and XBOOTLDR
+partitions. Whenever kernels and associated files are present in the OS filesystem, they are synchronised to the boot partitions along
+with automatically generated boot entries and cmdlines. Specifically this means moss can discover and mount necessary partitions according to
+the disk topology, GPT entries, and Boot Loader Specification, generating configurations by scanning your local rootfs to build the proper
+`root=` parameters for you.
+
+Translated: Magic boot management makes way for offline rollbacks.
+
+## Warning
+
+Super **pre**-alpha. Will 100% break! We just wanted you for the journey <3
+
+## Start of public iterations
+
+Ok you have this super rough ISO, what next? We now have an actual *startpoint* and will continue to iterate on the ISOs,
+delivering new installer updates/improvements and removing the unnecessary live mode from the ISO completely.
+
+The next release will also feature more installer options so you can fresh-install the Cosmic Desktop (in repos now)
+For the brave, go forth and `sudo moss sync -u` ! (ok you want `moss help` first.)
+
+## Closing word
+
+As a distro, it's kinda crap right now. The tooling has been our focus for years and now we can actually build something
+with it. With only a handful of packages, `flatpak` is your best friend. Or you could swing a PR into our [recipes](https://github.com/serpent-os/recipes) repo!
+
+The project is only possible with your support. Something tells me that putting out this ISO is going to somewhat increase
+our hosting costs and stress the datacenter hamsters.
+
+Feel free to [sponsor](https://github.com/sponsors/ikeycode) to support our work and increase our capacity!

docs/download.md

@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ hide:
 
     They should not yet be used in general production.
 
+=== "Installable ISOs"
+
+    | Filename                                                                              | Issued    |                                                             SHA256 |
+    |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
+    | [serpent-os-prealpha-0.iso](https://download.serpentos.com/serpent-os-prealpha-0.iso) |2024-08-01 | `a4ef4529614095cd76bd30ee73f3b00d7414a745fa96b11bc0483cee3d8f14b9` |
+
 === "KVM ISOs"
 
     | Filename                                                              | Issued        | SHA256                                             |

docs/index.md

@@ -33,12 +33,6 @@ there's something for everyone.
 As a project, we care deeply about **how things work** - so our primary goal is to improve the automation and tooling used
 by our developers and contributors to streamline delivery of features and updates to our users.
 
-!!! danger "Serpent OS is in active, heavy development"
-
-    We welcome all contributions at this stage of our development, as we transition from prototypes to deliverables,
-    especially with our transition to Rust. With the integration of system triggers nearing, we'll begin to publish
-    frequent desktop ISOs and OCI images for dog-fooding purposes.
-
 ## Meet the tools
 
 We said we care deeply - and this is made a reality through our tooling. Whether it's package builds, orchestration of updates,
@@ -62,7 +56,7 @@ We leverage the fastest technologies and techniques to provide *ridiculously* fa
  - [xxHash](https://xxhash.com) for content addressable hashes. Zip!
  - [Zstandard](https://github.com/facebook/zstd) for package compression, kernel modules, firmware, etc.
  - Upcoming: [BLAKE3](https://github.com/BLAKE3-team/BLAKE3) for verification!
- 
+
 #### :lock: Safer
 
  - :crab: Core tooling is written in Rust, with support tooling in the process of being ported. Memory safe with extremely fast execution.