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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by marcie@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

I've been feeling gushy about my setup lately, I think I've finally found my home on Linux. For decades I've distrohopped each year and never was really happy with it all, but Fedora Atomic has changed that.

Some things I can do with Fedora Atomic that I cannot do with other Linux distros:

  • I can rebase to Bazzite for gaming performance when I feel like having a long gaming session.

  • I can rebase to Secureblue when I think I will not be gaming and would prefer a more secure linux setup.

  • I can update my system and not have to worry about special instructions, its extremely stable. Many times in the past, running a small ma-and-pa distro with most things pre-configed for performance would end with it breaking after a couple of major updates. This isn't true for configs like Bazzite and Secureblue, they are remarkably stable across many major updates due to how rpm-ostree functions.

  • Distrobox and Flatpak are more than enough at this stage for most programs and they help you avoid making too many alterations to the base image, greatly speeding up the swaps between major images.

The kicker? Your user configs and home files are never changed when you 'image hop'. It always feels like you just installed a fresh distro whenever you upgrade, and the performance benefits are noticeable. You don't have to tinker and do the same changes over and over, its all handled for you by rpm-ostree.

10/10 this is the future of Linux. I hope for a future where I can rebase entire Linux distros while maintaining my configs with one simple command, but for now, Fedora Atomic is fantastic.

The downsides:

  • There is one major downside, and its that all of your system files are read-only. Personally, I've found a dozen ways to get around this, it requires thinking inside the Distrobox. It is a notable issue for many people, though. This means you cannot make specific tweaks without making a whole new image for yourself. Though in practice, I have found the ecosystem has grown a lot. Other people have already made the best tweaks available for you with only a few simple commands.

  • Rpm-ostree also is slow to update because its essentially building a whole git tree to make sure your updates never break and are as stable as possible. You also have to reboot each time you alter it, which can be annoying, but if you stick to flatpaks and distroboxes, this issue is mitigated significantly.

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[-] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 6 days ago

I really like it as well. I did three major version upgrades so far and they have been flawless. I also really like Flatpak, finally a way of easily installing something on Linux without breaking half of the system because the application you wanted to install uses libfoo 2.0 and not libfoo 1.9.9-patch-1337. With my atomic desktop applications that worked yesterday also work today. Things don't randomly break all the time.

The future of Fedora Atomic also looks exciting; Timothée Ravier is working on sysexts which are a way of installing applications without ostree layering. I could remove most of my ostree layered packages with that.

[-] marcie@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

Oooh, didn't know about that. Very exciting

[-] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 5 days ago

did three major version upgrades so far and they have been flawless.

To be fair, I've upgraded normal Fedora for like.. 8-10 versions in a row maybe, and never had a problem

[-] marcie@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The biggest issue I've had is tweaks causing instability over time. I also have had some issues where I was updating a debian install that hadn't been updated in 3 years and it broke and would require tweaking to fix (why do this when I can just load a new immutable install and fix it for good?). I have enough computers laying around that I'd really rather it work when I want to as a sure thing. So far my testing with immutable distros has been stellar, I'll let everyone know if my ostree tweaks and updates don't load in 3 years, lol.

I think this is a big enough problem that even the Fedora team considered it an issue and therefore pushed out Fedora Atomic.

[-] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

You might wanna rephrase that or some feds are gonna have a field day.

[-] kittenroar@beehaw.org 11 points 6 days ago

I appreciate your mentioning the downside. I am way too much of a tinkerer for a read-only root to be acceptable for me, but I'm glad you found something you like.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

eh, it's not all root... /etc and /var are RW

[-] kittenroar@beehaw.org 1 points 5 days ago
[-] Kirk@startrek.website 3 points 5 days ago

10/10 this is the future of Linux

Totally agree

[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

It's not the future... it's the present for all users running mobile linux-based computing devices called Android smartphones. The paradigm is very similar to Atomic distros. As for what the future might hold for linux, that remains to be seen.

The Atomic UX has proven very popular with mainstream users running by Steam Deck and similar devices as running Bazzite. They may not be aware how they are built, they just know it just works and that's all they need.

As for the maintainers, containerized development removes a lot of development time, provided they have experience in cloud native development environments. Old school developers get annoyed by this constraints.

All in all, it's just another alternative, don't diss it out of fear it might take over the Linux scene... let others have what they need, provided by Linux and open source software.

[-] skynet@feddit.cl 4 points 6 days ago

it’s also supported by Homebrew Package Manager so you can use command line shells outside containers without layering if you want to

[-] peppy@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago

does an Atomic / Immutable distro use more disk space than say my Arch install? if yes, how much more? if no, I am moving immediately.

[-] marcie@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

It uses more, yeah. But it's not a lot more. You could maybe compare the iso sizes

[-] Jaberw0cky@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I agree it is great, but am I the only one running Opensuse MicroOS?

[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago

I never see the cons (excluding nixos) being that only a few desktops(eg kde,gnome,i3 and budgie) are offered compared to mutable distros

[-] simontherockjohnson@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

Why not just run a hypervisor and use containers?

[-] marcie@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

I have a build like this for tinkering but to say it is slow and inefficient is an understatement. Very secure though. I can't really see daily driving it.

[-] ada 68 points 1 week ago

10/10 this is the future of Linux.

I hope it's a future of Linux, not the future. I'm not a fan of atomic distros, mostly because if their reliance on flatpak and the like

[-] Pirata@lemm.ee 15 points 6 days ago

Flatpaks are better for security though. Containerization is a necessity for any serious device connecting to the internet.

Linux users got way too confortable giving any obscure package they found on AUR root access to their entire device, lol.

[-] ada 11 points 6 days ago

And that's why it's good that it's an option! I just don't want it to become the only option

[-] Pirata@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Fair. I think for as long as there is a will to maintain traditional distros (which there is), there will be options.

Hell, people are still keeping Thinkpads T480 alive and relatively secure by making custom libre bootloaders! The F(L)OSS community is awesome.

[-] wolfinthewoods@lemmy.ml 8 points 5 days ago

What about NixOS? It seems to be doing something very different from most distros. I used it briefly and it was a refreshing experience to just update the config file to add and remove programs, I know that a lot of people share their configs and it makes it easy to keep programs consistent from different installs. I would have installed it on this laptop if the installer wasn't giving me so many issues, so I ended up with MXLinux instead, but I still look on my NixOS days fondly.

[-] ada 6 points 5 days ago

It's on my list to try!

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago

Having tried NixOS, I gotta say the ability to quickly restore everything from a single config (its main premise) is overrated when it comes to home systems. Invaluable for production environments, though.

The rest can be done on any other Linux, and it would probably be preferred by most.

[-] Pirata@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I keep saying this.

If you're a sysadmin in charge of a bunch of computers, by all means use NixOS.

But for personal use? Its easier to install everything by hand every time you reset your laptop (which should be maybe once per year at most) than it is to set up a config file on NixOS.

[-] itslilith 2 points 4 days ago

It's about the certainty to have what you want, where you want it, reliably. I run NixOS with Impermanence, which means I reset my root partion on every boot, and have what state I need specifically opt-in. And I run a shared config over multiple devices (home PC and Laptop), so installing something on one also installs it on the other, next time I rebuild. It certainly takes time getting used to, but I've been really enjoying it so far

[-] Pirata@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

That's fine. Again, I don't understand the use case.

I certainly don't install or uninstall programs so often that I need to systematize it, and I only have 2 computers so its probably easier to just manually install them on each machine than to use some obscure coding language to achieve the same.

But to each their own. Linux is awesome also because of the options it offers to everybody.

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I think this approach is going to fair the best for mainstream adoption (i.e. Windows refugees). So I would agree that the "future" is going to involve immutable distros as a large, possibly majority, of all Linux installations.

[-] railcar@midwest.social 4 points 5 days ago

Agreed - for someone moving from Windows / Mac, the immutables and flatpak are the way to go now. It's going to take a bit for the Ubuntu / Mint crowd to change their song. Bazzite in particular is a huge olive branch to the gamers. Even for someone who is "tinkering" learning distrobox and/or flatseal can enable most things you would ever want to tinker with on a desktop. If you are really developing something, chances are that you use containers or a VM anyway.

I have to concur on flatpaks though: they have room for improvement. More validation / trust is needed, and the options are wide open. For non-technical users, the *surety and security *isn't necessarily on par with the app stores of Microsoft, Apple & Google - though the experience is getting there.

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Pros and cons on the app store thing. Microsoft may curate a bit more but I think it's inherently more dangerous. A malicious Windows app probably doesn't have as many hurdles to get the necessary access to take over your system or otherwise cause trouble. To my knowledge, flatpaks can't run with root permissions unless you executed as root (i.e. enter your password). Seeing that pop up should be way more of a red flag than seeing the "elevate permissions" pop up on Windows.

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Strong disagree on my part.

Immutable distros work differently from traditional ones, for which most guides and manuals were written. This is somewhat painful even for those coming from other distros, and it's gonna be a nightmare for those coming from another OS. They didn't even familiarize themselves with Linux yet, and people want them to run flatpaks, distroboxes and work with rpm-ostree or its alternatives. It's like learning to fly a plane by saving a Boeing-737 on a crash course.

Immutable options are not for newbie users, at least not in the foreseeable future.

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this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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