> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://siderolabs-fe86397c-1-11-reference.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is Talos?

> A quick introduction in to what Talos is and why it should be used.

Talos is a container optimized Linux distro; a reimagining of Linux for distributed systems such as Kubernetes.
Designed to be as minimal as possible while still maintaining practicality.
For these reasons, Talos has a number of features unique to it:

* it is immutable
* it is atomic
* it is ephemeral
* it is minimal
* it is secure by default
* it is managed via a single declarative configuration file and gRPC API

Talos can be deployed on container, cloud, virtualized, and bare metal platforms.

## Why Talos

In having less, Talos offers more.
Security.
Efficiency.
Resiliency.
Consistency.

All of these areas are improved simply by having less.