Maybe consider buying hardware with better Linux support in the future, e.g. getting an AMD GPU instead of a Nvidia if you want to get a new one anyway.

I personally have zero issues with my (relatively normal) setup. Even more, I have better hardware support on Linux than on Windows! For example, I noticed that I can dim my monitor, which doesn’t work on Windows!
Or, my GPU is more silent, because Bazzite and the Linux kernel ship some tweaks that make the energy draw and fan curve more efficient in my experience.

Again, I think it’s just your hardware, especially the multi monitor. Multi monitor is supposed to be fine on AMD (can’t confirm, I only have one ultra wide), or single/ dual monitor is also supposed to be almost great on Nvidia, with the proprietary drivers.

If you have a spare laptop with proper Linux support (most ones do, even with Nvidia, Surface, etc.) consider installing it and just try it out. uBlue (Aurora/ Bluefin, Bazzite, etc.) is great for that, so, maybe check that out.

If not, then we’ll welcome you again in a few years. The OS is just a tool, use the best suited one for your use case. In yours, it may be Windows currently.

Bazzite offers a variant with Nvidia drivers already baked in too.

You don’t have to reinstall anything btw, you can just rebase from Kinoite to Bazzite with rpm-ostree rebase *link to Bazzite*. (You find the instructions on the website).

It takes about 5 minutes and you can keep all your configs and data, including Flatpaks, pictures and WiFi password. And if you don’t like it, you can revert that or rebase to some other variant, e.g. Aurora, the Sway spin, or whatever. I find it pretty neat.

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+1 for Fedora Atomic.
Especially Bazzite comes with Nvidia drivers already built in and everything should just werk™.
It’s very modern and reliable. If it doesn’t work with that, nothing will.

To be fair, the use case is very demanding. Just 2 years ago, we were glad that we can play more than one game on Steam, and now, we’re complaining that our triple monitor setup with Nvidia and VRR/HDR doesn’t work perfectly. I’m happy we’re at this point, but some things, like that, may hinder the wide spread adoption…

Maybe take a look at universal-blue.org, especially the Aurora (KDE) or Bluefin (Gnome), too. It’s basically the same, but with some QoL stuff already added, like proprietary drivers and more already set up for you for a nicer experience.

For one thing, image based distros are very convenient. If you tell someone “Just install Bazzite”, they will probably have a nice gaming experience without any tinkering, because everything is already set up for you ootb.

You have to understand the concept first. Fedora Atomic/ image based distros are built from top to bottom, not on the same level. If something changes from “above”, your install will change too, to an 1:1 copy basically.
Problem is, if stock Fedora isn’t allowed to ship/ doesn’t have some things pre-installed, it’s harder to iron out on the user level, e.g. by negatively affecting update times.

uBlue is basically a “build script”, that takes the upstream image, modifies it, and redistributes that with the changes included.
In that way, the image from other users is the same as yours, with the same bugs.
This makes it more efficient and user friendly.

It also allows devs to make their “own” distro with only their changes included, while offering a very solid base they don’t have to maintain themselves.

Thanks for your answer.

This may sound harsh, but I’m glad I’m on Fedora Atomic. Suse sounds a bit shitty/ not much better than the regular edition.

As distro desktop hopper, the ability to rebase to other spins is one major aspect of using Atomic, and I use it all the time.

Please tell me more about OpenSuse Kalpa/ Aeon/ MicroOS.

I’m a huge fan of Fedora Atomic, but find Suse interesting as well.

What are the differences between the two?

• Layering packages (rpm-ostree alternative?)
• Are updates still reproducible and atomic?
• What is the difference between Tumbleweed and Kalpa? You named snapshots. Are they different from Snapper?
• Can you rebase between Aeon and Kalpa?
• Why Suse and not Fedora?

Yeah, of course it is. I use it too for 3D-modeling, image editing and more.

For general purpose, it’s pretty normal. Its’ main advantages really only shine in gaming stuff.

But, to be fair, I don’t know if the tweaks optimised for gaming don’t negatively affect other stuff. I didn’t notice anything yet, but you can’t be sure.

It can be, but for that, I would rather recommend Aurora or Bluefin. They are almost the same, but without gaming stuff.

I use Bazzite on my gaming PC, and Aurora on my media laptop. I’m extremely happy with both.

Just use Bazzite. It updated automatically to F40 just a few hours after upstream, still has all security settings intact and is a joy to use.

Maybe give Aurora a chance.
It’s basically a slightly altered variant of Kinoite with many QoL-changes and additions.

And there’s also Bazzite, which is the same, but for gaming purposes.

They belong to the uBlue-family, which is one of the coolest things ever in the Linux world for me

Now that you’ve convinced me this might be the best course (I only see less problems than other distros would have)

Sometimes, software, especially install scripts for something, are less common for Silverblue, but executing those is very risky anyway and I never felt the need for it.

And, as I said, some things just work differently. But NixOS is one million times worse than that in that regard, so don’t worry about it. You shouldn’t have many issues.

any recommended reading or key concepts I should look into? Any particular flavor(s) you’d point me to first?

I don’t know. In my opinion, my post should cover most stuff concepts and differences.

Don’t worry about it, you’ll use Flatpak anyway most of the time, and it updates itself automatically, so the package manager (rpm-ostree) doesn’t matter much for you.
You can still use your prefered package manager (apt, dnf, etc.) in Distrobox.

Other than that, just don’t worry and use your laptop for whatever you want to do.

And about flavor choice, there are a few options:

• Bazzite is mainly if you game a lot
• Bluefin and Aurora are the same, just in Gnome or KDE. It’s basically Bazzite without gaming stuff
• Secureblue, which features security hardening tweaks
• Wayblue, which is with River, Wayland, and more
• And of course all different DE-spins, e.g. Sway, Budgie, etc.

Just go to the uBlue homepage and see for yourself what appeals to you :)

I don’t know what I should say tbh 😅
For the start, you can read my post about image based distros: https://feddit.de/post/8234416

Imo, Fedora Atomic is NixOS made easy. You can go to the uBlue-builder and modify a custom image if you’re a tinkerer.
NixOS is down-to-top (local config file that defines your host), while uBlue is top-to-bottom (you modify an image, image gets built on GitHub and then shipped to you).
This allows you to fork or create an existing “distro” without having to maintain a whole distro yourself.

Other than that, especially uBlue is extremely user friendly imo.

• It updates itself in the background, updates get staged and applied after you’ve shut down your PC in the evening.
• You can rebase anytime you want to another flavor, e.g. I switched to KDE 6 from Gnome after it came out.
• You have to use containers for everything (mostly Flatpak, but also Distrobox or Nix)
• It’s ultra low maintenance and even more reliable, you can boot into an old image if a new update broke anything or made something buggy
• For a casual user, not distinguishable from regular Fedora
• And much more

I love nothing else more.

Flatpak?

Compared to Bazzite, there shouldn’t be (m)any differences. You can see Bazzite just as a gaming-oriented Bluefin

they have done away with OS-tree? Because that would make this entirely based on FlatPaks and no other options, which is a huge block for me.

I don’t understand exactly what you mean with that, but I think you are afraid of any restrictions.

• uBlue (Bluefin, Bazzite, etc.) is still Fedora Atomic, just like Silverblue. It’s just that they take the OG image, rebuild it based on some instructions, and then redistribute it. It still has OSTree and all other stuff.
• You aren’t set on Flatpak, but you definitely should use it on image based distros. Flatpaks are great and convenient, that’s why they’re getting more and more popular, also for devs. Because of that, the default (and only) way of installing apps via software center is Flatpak. If you don’t like that, you can still use Distrobox (e.g. with Pacman, DNF, etc.), Nix, Brew, or any other package manager you like, b but that’s more for CLI-users.
• I mostly work graphically, but if I have to do some CLI stuff, then I enter my Arch-Distrobox. I never encountered any problems or restrictions there tbh
• And you can still layer (install rpm packages on the host system) via rpm-ostree if you really need it, but it’s not recommended and only there for essential stuff. Use containers instead.

If you are like myself and use your PC mainly for gaming, and your laptop just for casual use (watching videos, writing notes, etc.), then you can also take a look at Bluefin (Gnome) or Aurora (KDE).

It’s a “replacement” for the stock Fedora Silverblue/ Kinoite with QoL stuff and on the spectrum between Bazzite (“bloated”) and the uBlue base image (extremely lean, missing a few standard apps by default) and gives you the choice between “I’m a casual user” (-> only what you need) and the “developer edition”, which includes some IDEs and stuff.

I like it a lot and think of it as “Bazzite, without gaming stuff”. Maybe you’ll like it too!

@babara@lemmy.ml
The difference with Fedora Atomic, which I think you refer to, is that it’s totally open. For example, people started using the OCI containers differently than Fedora intended, which resulted in uBlue and stuff like Bazzite.

Also, no one forces you to use Flatpak. You can still use Distrobox and use Pacman/ APT/ DNF/ whatever you prefer and export your apps that way. It’s just that Flatpak “won” and doesn’t have many drawbacks, and is very convenient. I mostly like them.

And, most importantly, Fedora is the fronteer of innovation.
There were many projects and ideas that failed, but many more succedded (Wayland, image based distros, etc.), and Project Atomic is just one more “testing ground” that is well thought out imo. Therefore people are expecting to “test out” new generation Linux stuff, it’s just part of Fedora. If you don’t like that, use Debian instead.

I can recommend you to give Fedora Atomic a chance, it’s an extremely nice family of distros (e.g. Bluefin/ Aurora, Bazzite, etc.)!

Edit: one more thing is that Fedora is, in contrast to Ubuntu, not controlled by a company. RedHat doesn’t have nearly as much influence as people think, it’s mainly community driven, and therefore choices aren’t (in theory) influenced by $$$

You could give the uBlue builder a shot, which can do exactly that.

But I think NixOS is a better choice for a tinkerer like you :)