2y ago

Project Bluefin: A Linux Desktop for Serious Developers

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2y ago

Project Bluefin: A Linux Desktop for Serious Developers

thenewstack.io /project-bluefin-a-linux-desktop-for-serious-developers/

51 comments

What's the Linux desktop for the playful developer? 🤔
- Everybody knows Linux is primarily used and developed (?) by moms who play FarmVille in terminal.
Are other distros not serious? I don't understand what this is.
- You're just not cloud-native enough to understand how revolutionary it is to run GNOME on Fedora.
  
  We are really experiencing a cloud native generation. These Zoomers don't even know how life was without a cloud over their heads.
uses the GNOME interface
yeah thats a no from me.
- You're just not a serious developer 😒
- Plus its just running off Fedora? Easy no.
  
  How did they manage to just take the worst of both and put them together?
- Lmao I first read that as
  Yet another Newly Jank ass Linux Distro
A serious desktop got serious developers who are seriously serious about their serioucity
I don't get it. What's the spirit of ubuntu? Is the underlying OS based on ubuntu instead of fedora?
What's the actual difference to fedora silverblue?
Half the answer to "why did you make your own linux?" is that it's awesome being able to revert back to the original fedora OS.
Because it follows a cloud-native approach, the end user has the flexibility to rebase back to the stock Fedora or any Universal Blue image. It's more like having someone install, configure, and maintain a polished Fedora setup for you.
And the other half doesn't provide any info either
Bluefin utilizes Fedora's OCI features to compose and build an OS image. This process is overseen by a well-structured community that is committed to automation and sustainability. The end result is akin to a configuration management tool like Ansible or Salt, but without the typical challenges associated with maintaining a custom distribution.
Source
- What’s the actual difference to fedora silverblue?
  Hi! Co-maintainer here, you can find the differences in the github repo: https://github.com/ublue-os/bluefin
  And there's a doc page going over it here: https://universal-blue.discourse.group/docs?topic=41
  If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them!
  
  Hi! Co-maintainer here, you can find the differences in the github repo: https://github.com/ublue-os/bluefin
  I checked the github page you link and can find no differences listed, just three bullet points that appear to have be written by a PR team. You say an Ubuntu Desktop experience melded with Fedora Silverblue. Don't you mean GNOME? Ubuntu isn't a desktop environment, it's a Linux distro. GNOME is the desktop environment. That seems like an embarassing blunder in your copy when you claim to be building a distro for "serious" developers.
  If it weren't open source, I'd think this was a scam. Weird choice.
- Yeah, they don't have a clear mission statement to explain the delta of "why does this exist, and what problems does it solve".
  
  I think it boils down to: "because we can". "We can automatically build our own setup on github and that's what we do"
  Installing tailscale, zsh, fish, vscode, extension manager, codecs, etc. out of the box isn't enough for a new distro. Especially because you break the signing of fedora by doing so.
- This is the umpteenth time I’ve come across this project but I just don’t get what they’re going for here.
  These are just custom images, are they not?
  If I wanted Ubuntu I’d use Ubuntu. If I wanted Fedora I’d use Fedora. Maybe I’m not getting it but I wonder how big of a population that’s out there that wants some Ubuntu mixed in with a touch of Fedora and some buzzword salad thrown into the mix.
Sorry, I only know silly, goofy developers. Can't recommend this to anyone.
- Yeah same, I'm a silly goose developer, can't use this. Sorry!
I prefer to have a minimal linux ditro and install the apps I need.
Can someone tell me the recent hype about immutable distros? What exactly is the immutable part, and why is it attractive?
- The base OS is a known unchanging set of bits. Squirt this datastream onto a storage volume and boot to it and you have a known-working system. Then you can futz around with all the self-contained packaged apps you want, and no worries about weird interactions fucking over your whole system.
  It's not for me, but I kinda see the appeal.
- Immutable, adjective: Unchanging over time or unable to be changed.
  From the article: "We want a reliable desktop experience that runs everything, but we’re too lazy to maintain anything. So we automated the entire delivery pipeline in GitHub."
  So, in other words... "Please don't ever update your system or everything will break"
  
  It means the core OS is isolated from all the functionality in a way that allows you to modularly add all the functionality on top of it in a reproducible, robust way.
  In theory. I haven't actually dug into any of them personally.
- It's when you can't set the volume to 0% so that everyone around you has to hear how hard you're working.
- The system (the os files to be precise) is only mutable by package manager for specific tasks like updating. It can break certain workflows if the user wants to change system files, because they can't.
  Bonuses from that are security and reproducibility. You can be sure that whatever package you have will look and behave exactly the same as on another device with the same OS. Malware won't be able to mess around with your OS so trivially as it does on mutable distros.
  
  Interesting. Sounds like DevOps folks would love it. Maybe I’ll look into it more. Thanks!
- There is always some solutionizm in tech, but I'm interested in containerzation as a solution to problems I've had with configure drift building up on my systems and make it easier to share and work with the community.
  The immutable desktop work to me is specifically working on bridging the gap between the UX of a local admin (you know wanting custom configuration and fast reaction to user input) and the industrial expectations of being able to test and track every change and reduce the number of different pieces you need to operate a system.
  Hopefully we can lose some of the industries bad habits though. Like "relying on this proprietary piece is ok because we can move faster" or making other excuses as if you are going to have to explain to your boss why some metric looks bad instead of just trying to make the best system or solution we can.
- Let people enjoy things.
- The amount of times my Windows installation(s) broke is just as high as the amount of times my Linux installations had issues. The article you quoted seems to be from someone with more Windows experience than Linux experience.
  One example: FileZilla is a capable GUI SFTP and FTP client, but so is nearly every file manager. I can drag and drop files from Dolphin into a fuse mounted FTP, SMB or SFTP folder just fine. Skill issue?
  EDIT: omg, I just realised they use WinSCP for deploying applications. It really seems like a skill issue since you can automate that even without proprietary clouds. I can probably replace this person with a PowerShell script, which is even more efficient than them doing their job on Windows.
  All operating systems sadly need lots of maintenance nowadays. The main reason I use Linux is that I feel in control of the system and the vendor doesn't actively try to fuck with my installation.
- I care!
"I use bluefin btw" It doesn't feel nice.
🥱
What a shitty tagline. What have I been doing these past few years, lol?

51 comments