Skip to main content

Introduction to Bluefin

Deinonychus antirrhopus

docs.projectbluefin.io​

image

tip

Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS to set it on, and I can move the world.

-- Steve Langasek

Features​

Bluefin features a GNOME (Donate) desktop configured by our community. It is designed to be hands-off and stay out of your way so you can focus on your applications.

System updates are image-based and automatic. Applications are logically separated from the system by using Flatpaks for graphical applications and brew for command-line applications.

tip

Bluefin is "An interpretation of the Ubuntu spirit built on Fedora technology"—a callback to an era of Ubuntu's history that many open source enthusiasts grew up with, much like the Classic X-Men. We aim to bring that same vibe here; think of us as the reboot. Chill vibes.

  • Ubuntu-like GNOME layout.
    • Integrates the following GNOME Extensions by default:
  • Developer Mode - Dedicated developer mode that transforms Bluefin into a powerful cloud-native developer workstation
  • Ptyxis terminal for container-focused workflows
  • Tailscale - included for VPN along with wireguard-tools
    • Use systemctl disable --now tailscaled.service to turn it off if you don't plan on using it.
    • Tailscale systray support included
  • GNOME Extensions Manager (Donate) included
  • Bazaar Application Store featuring Flathub:
    • Use a familiar software center UI to install graphical software
    • Warehouse (Donate) included for Flatpak management
  • Quality of Life Features
    • Starship terminal prompt enabled by default
    • Solaar - included for managing Logitech mice along with libratbagd
    • rclone (Donate) - mount nearly any remote storage service onto your local machine, great for multi-machine setups
    • restic (Donate) - A modern backup program for your files
    • zsh and fish included (Instructions) as optional shells
    • Switcheroo support for laptops with multiple GPUs
  • Built on top of the Universal Blue main image - enabling straightforward sharing of benefits:
    • Extra udev rules for game controllers and other devices included out of the box
    • All multimedia codecs included
    • System designed for automatic staging of updates
      • If you've never used an image-based Linux before, use your computer normally
      • Don't overthink it—just shut your computer off when you're not using it

Upstream Focus​

Bluefin specifically ships upstream tools in lieue of custom applications. The idea of a "distribution app store" has proven to be unsustainable for desktop application authors, so Bluefin ships tools like Bazaar and Homebrew instead. Additionally the team purposely ensures that the workflows used in Bluefin remain not only distribution agnostic, but operating system agnostic. For example, podman, docker, and flatpak instead of distribution specific tooling, etc.

Bazaar

Bazaar2