I’m currently using Linux Mint and I’m happy, but the limitations are starting to show their bare teeth. I am planning to buy a tuxedo laptop soon and I fear with the new hardware Linux Mint will be a hindrance with their outdated packages, so I’m considering a fedora-based distro.
Any info you’d like to share? I’m not a developer, just a regular user looking to use Linux as a daily driver.
Hey, normal user here too. I game a lot, and do graphic design, so I need the latest drivers but not too bleeding edge as Arch.
Every Universal Blue distro is freaking awesome. I run Bazzite on my main rig and Aurora on my work laptop, I wasn’t allowed to install Aurora on the laptop’s main drive because that would erase the Windows 11 kicense which the company owns, so I bought an M2 caddy and installed Aurora there. It runs better than Windows which is installed in the internal drive. It’s easier to work than on Windows because you are able to not care about ANYTHING. There’s no maintenance at all. Everytime you reboot it boots in the standard few seconds but it updates in the background, you don’t notice. The system is unbreakable. I freaking love it. I have owned Windows PC’s, Apple Macs, and this is by far the best experience I ever had with a PC.
My wife (who’s more tech illiterate than average) and my 2 kids (4 and 6) both use my Aurora and Bazzite PCs, it’s that easy.
Absolutely recommended.
Just be warned, these are not standard fedora distros, they are atomic and immutable, you can’t mess with the system. You can only modify your user’s home dir.
So:
GUI apps = Flatpak apps from the Discover app store
CLI apps = Brew install packagename
Portable apps = download any appimage drop it in Gear lever (included) and it gets added to the start menu
If all of this is not enough, you can use Boxbuddy (included) to create in two clicks a container with any distro you want in it, and afterwards you can install a truckload of packages inside of it. You can use a Ubuntu container to use a .Deb installer or access the Arch AUR, and it’s gazillion of packages. They will feel like they were installed in your system but technically they are not. They can’t fuck up your system. They are jailed inside the container.
So, if you fuck it up, you’ll fuck up the container, not your PC.
Using boxbuddy I created a standard fedora container and installed an RPM to remove DRM from audiobooks so that I can listen to them on any app I want. It’s called Libation, and for some reason it’s the only app I wanted and not available on the Discover app store. All of this was like 8 clicks and no thinking, just brute clicking what looked like the right thing.
If that’s still not enough, you can use a command that’s something like rpm-ostree something something to layer a package on top of your base image. Almost altering your PC but not really. I haven’t done this, as it’s not recommended / best practice and it’s supposedly the last resort.
I have been running Bazzite for like 2 years or so and Aurora for like half a year or more. I tried Bluefin too, it’s great if you like GNOME, but KDE felt more performant on my laptop so I went with that. Ublue is just great.
I hope this can answer some of your questions, if you want to know something more, just ask.
Wow, thanks man! Really inspiring stuff, I feel like you clarified a lot.
I don’t need to change a lot of stuff on my system either, I mostly only mess with GUI stuff. So all of this sounds great. Awesome to know there’s access to basically all packages too!
I don’t really have any further questions. I’ll probably just buy (yet another) live pen and boot Aurora from there to give it a proper go, haha. Thanks a lot. Comment saved for posterity.
Something you should know… Ublue distros don’t include a live boot mode. I used 2 USB drives:
I downloaded the image and flashed it using the Fedora Media Writer to USB 1, reset and booted into it, the installer loads up, and I installed it to USB 2.
After that, I got into my BIOS settings and set it to boot to USB 2 as default.
It worked perfectly. Plus, having it on separate drives makes it immune to issues related to dual booting.
This. The EU should just fork Silverblue. I’m using Bazzite and Aurora… What a wonderful distro family.
How’s aurora for a beginner?
I’m currently using Linux Mint and I’m happy, but the limitations are starting to show their bare teeth. I am planning to buy a tuxedo laptop soon and I fear with the new hardware Linux Mint will be a hindrance with their outdated packages, so I’m considering a fedora-based distro.
Any info you’d like to share? I’m not a developer, just a regular user looking to use Linux as a daily driver.
Hey, normal user here too. I game a lot, and do graphic design, so I need the latest drivers but not too bleeding edge as Arch.
Every Universal Blue distro is freaking awesome. I run Bazzite on my main rig and Aurora on my work laptop, I wasn’t allowed to install Aurora on the laptop’s main drive because that would erase the Windows 11 kicense which the company owns, so I bought an M2 caddy and installed Aurora there. It runs better than Windows which is installed in the internal drive. It’s easier to work than on Windows because you are able to not care about ANYTHING. There’s no maintenance at all. Everytime you reboot it boots in the standard few seconds but it updates in the background, you don’t notice. The system is unbreakable. I freaking love it. I have owned Windows PC’s, Apple Macs, and this is by far the best experience I ever had with a PC.
My wife (who’s more tech illiterate than average) and my 2 kids (4 and 6) both use my Aurora and Bazzite PCs, it’s that easy.
Absolutely recommended.
Just be warned, these are not standard fedora distros, they are atomic and immutable, you can’t mess with the system. You can only modify your user’s home dir. So:
If all of this is not enough, you can use Boxbuddy (included) to create in two clicks a container with any distro you want in it, and afterwards you can install a truckload of packages inside of it. You can use a Ubuntu container to use a .Deb installer or access the Arch AUR, and it’s gazillion of packages. They will feel like they were installed in your system but technically they are not. They can’t fuck up your system. They are jailed inside the container.
So, if you fuck it up, you’ll fuck up the container, not your PC.
Using boxbuddy I created a standard fedora container and installed an RPM to remove DRM from audiobooks so that I can listen to them on any app I want. It’s called Libation, and for some reason it’s the only app I wanted and not available on the Discover app store. All of this was like 8 clicks and no thinking, just brute clicking what looked like the right thing.
If that’s still not enough, you can use a command that’s something like rpm-ostree something something to layer a package on top of your base image. Almost altering your PC but not really. I haven’t done this, as it’s not recommended / best practice and it’s supposedly the last resort.
I have been running Bazzite for like 2 years or so and Aurora for like half a year or more. I tried Bluefin too, it’s great if you like GNOME, but KDE felt more performant on my laptop so I went with that. Ublue is just great.
I hope this can answer some of your questions, if you want to know something more, just ask.
Wow, thanks man! Really inspiring stuff, I feel like you clarified a lot.
I don’t need to change a lot of stuff on my system either, I mostly only mess with GUI stuff. So all of this sounds great. Awesome to know there’s access to basically all packages too!
I don’t really have any further questions. I’ll probably just buy (yet another) live pen and boot Aurora from there to give it a proper go, haha. Thanks a lot. Comment saved for posterity.
Something you should know… Ublue distros don’t include a live boot mode. I used 2 USB drives:
I downloaded the image and flashed it using the Fedora Media Writer to USB 1, reset and booted into it, the installer loads up, and I installed it to USB 2.
After that, I got into my BIOS settings and set it to boot to USB 2 as default.
It worked perfectly. Plus, having it on separate drives makes it immune to issues related to dual booting.