Something that Talos does differently is everything is an API. Machine configuration, upgrades, debugging…it’s all APIs. This helps with maintaining systems way beyond the usual cloud-init and systemd wrappers in other “minimal” distros.
The second big change is Talos Linux is only designed for Kubernetes. It’s not a generic Linux kernel+container runtime. The init system was designed to run the kubelet and publish an API that feels like a Kubernetes native component.
This drastically reduces the Linux knowledge required to run, scale, and maintain a complex system like Kubernetes.
I’ve been doing a set of live streams called Talos Linux install fest walking new users through setting up their first cluster on Talos. Each install is in a new environment so please check it out.