I sadly can’t give you any input or help, but I really appreciate your idea and, coincidentally, thought about the exact same thing today 😁

I think a more stable (slower release) variant of Fedora Atomic would be absolutely great for people who don’t like change as much as current Fedora users.

A more conservative variant would be great, especially for companies.
The combination of a stable system (in terms of update frequency and changes) with the unbreakability and deployability would be a huge win.

Imagine being the admin of a small company, class or department and just creating your own uBlue-image with all software your team needs and rebase a dozen PCs to that image. Would be awesome!

I think, currently, Fedora is sometimes too experimental and leading edge, which might be a problem for some people, especially in the business world. Having a more stable variant would be great.

I sadly can’t give you any input or help, but I really appreciate your idea and, coincidentally, thought about the exact same thing today 😁

I think a more stable (slower release) variant of Fedora Atomic would be absolutely great for people who don’t like change as much as current Fedora users.

A more conservative variant would be great, especially for companies.
The combination of a stable system (in terms of update frequency and changes) with the unbreakability and deployability would be a huge win.

Imagine being the admin of a small company, class or department and just creating your own uBlue-image with all software your team needs and rebase a dozen PCs to that image. Would be awesome!

I think, currently, Fedora is sometimes too experimental and leading edge, which might be a problem for some people, especially in the business world. Having a more stable variant would be great.

Stability isn’t the same as unbreakability. It just means the update cycle is prolonged.

If you’re worried about your system breaking, go for Fedora Atomic (Kinoite, Bazzite, uBlue, etc.).
It offers a very recent kernel (-> better hardware support, better performance, etc.) and because it’s an image based distro, you can always roll back, so you’ll always have a working and pretty much unbreakable system.

This sounds like the most reasonable answer here in this thread. I couldn’t have said it better.

Preferences don’t matter if you get paid for it. If your job demands working with software designed for Windows, then use Windows. If you don’t do that, you have to find workarounds that cost time and therefore money, both if you are self employed or have to work for a company.
Either you, or your boss, won’t be happy long term.

If you like Linux more, then use it in your free time, or maybe consider switching your orientation for development to that platform.

Same for development for Apple stuff (e.g. iPhone apps). Then you’re stuck with MacOS too. Or if you have to use certain CAD or Adobe software, then you’re stuck on Windows/ Mac too.

Software availability is great on Linux, and today, you can get most of the stuff working on it, even if it isn’t designed for that. But is it worth it that time and effort? For me, it wouldn’t.

Alright, interesting… As I said, I’m no expert or anything and this was just my noob optinion.

Thank you for the correction and further resources!

I don’t know what’s your intention.
I’m no expert or highly qualified in any way, so please correct me, but I don’t know if that’s the right way.

LLMs usually need lots of computing power, optimally in form of a GPU.
I use GPT4All, and when I send a prompt, I notice the temps/ fan speed and usage of my GPU turning up instantly to almost 100%. If it’s a longer one, my PC sounds like a helicopter 😁

In terms of hosting a server, you want something barely good enough for your service, e.g. running your cloud. This results in way less power draw, which is what you want, since it runs 24/7. Something powerful enough to run LLMs comfortably would likely draw lots of power, even an Apple Silicon.

I think, you’re better off just using GPT4All on your gaming PC if you need it.

I hope I’m wrong, and that M1s draw barely any power, especially in idle.
And even if I am, they (almost) can only run MacOS, which wouldn’t be a good server OS.

Mint is the most mentioned choice and an extremely great beginner distro with an huge community.

ZorinOS will get a big update very soon and is also a very good choice. It was my first distro, especially because it looks very modern and pleasing.

If you’re a tiny bit more advanced and get the basics, then you might take a look at the immutable Fedora variants like Silverblue.

They have many advantages compared to traditional distros like the two mentioned above, but atomic Linux is a relatively new concept. I also find them easier to understand and use, and, imo, they’re even more user friendly, but not as refined.

You can always use Fedora Atomic with an Arch Distrobox.

Silverblue and the Arch container update themself, and you can always enjoy your Arch CLI if you want :) I wouldn’t say Arch is unreliable, but it won’t intervene if you do something stupid.
SB on the other hand is almost unbrickable and extremely low maintenance, which I like a lot.

But if you did your research and enjoy Arch/ it’s derivatives, then have fun! Arch is great and if it suits your taste, then that’s wonderful! 😊

There’s an extension for that afaik

+1 from my side for universal-blue.org, where Bazzite is part of.

@Ultimatenab@beehaw.org I often see Garuda and other distros like those appealing to newcomers, because they come themed ootb and look fancy af. Don’t forget that you can get every tweak of that by just installing a theme, which is a matter of seconds.

Garuda is based on Arch, which is known to be not as highly noob friendly as some others.

For “normal” users like us especially, who just want to game and do other normie stuff, the immutable Fedora variants are excellent. uBlue fixes some of their minor issues, and they run wonderfully.

They work just how Linux should do it as desktop OS imo, and how other non-Linux-OSs should supposed to be too.

Also, there will soon come a time where you begin Distro-hopping and reinstall your OS every weekend. On immutable Fedora, you can change your DE (the GUI/ desktop environment, which often defines the distro) with one command cleanly and switch from KDE to Gnome for example, which feels like a clean reinstall, but keeps your data and config.

I wouldn’t use CentOS for private/ desktop stuff personally.

Do you really need its features? Afaik, the “security” features you mentioned are mainly for server use. At least that’s what I have in my mind right now when I researched possible candidates for my home server some time ago.

I think sticking with a “home use” distro would suit you better.

There are a few options as suggestions:

1. Stay on Kinoite

There’s barely any configuration drift compared to the mutable Fedora. Therefore, it should be less buggy.

Fedora Atomic KDE gave me the best Plasma experience yet. I often tested KDE (I’m a Gnome guy myself, but here and there hop to KDE for a few months) and on most installs on other distros like Suse/ Workstation/ Debian, it got more and more buggy after a few weeks due to updates and tweaks.
So, bugfixes often didn’t apply to my system, only the default one or the install from the devs.

I find Fedora’s release schedule to be the perfect sweetspot between reliable, stable and up to date.

If you’re really impatient, you can always switch to the nightly builds (on Atomic), which are more bug prone and rolling. Maybe, Plasma will be stable enough before it hits the official image. But you should keep at least one stable image in your bootloader.

2. Debian and Leap

Debian “just” got it’s new release and will be stale for the next years. BUT, many of those Plasma 6 bug fixes will be backported to 5.27. Still, many of the QOL-changes are 6-exclusive.

OpenSuse Leap also gives you a great KDE experience and is pretty similar to Debian, both in release schedule and when the last big update hit.

3. Distrobox

You can use an Arch/ Tumbleweed container on Debian/ slow release distro to get all the newest KDE stuff on the outside and keep your stable base beneath.

Why? Because, in my experience, Plasma only gets more refined each update. As long as there aren’t any new big features, there are about hundred bugs resolved weekly.

Or, you can do the opposite. Use something newer, like TW, Slowroll, Sid(uction) or Arch, to get the newest software under the hood, and use the Debian repo to get a stable DE.

Just what you prefer.

In your case, I’d settle with Fedora (mutable or Atomic, in your case the Kinoite version, as I’d prefer that one too), and just don’t upgrade to the newest version.
The older version is always supported for a year or two, and you don’t have to upgrade each release. The bug fixes always get backported if possible.

Yeah, of course. You’re right.

Nix is kind-of-immutable, and you can always roll back to your old build if necessary.

But Arch on the other hand is notorious to “just break” if you don’t exactly know what you’re doing. Of course it will work perfectly reliable (apart from the few paper cuts you get when using bleeding edge stuff) if you are experienced, and optimally, if you set it up with BTRFS and Snapper/ Timeshift.

But honestly, unpopular opinion, I absolutely see no reason to use Arch today. The only exception is the DIY-aspect, which I totally understand and respect. But, for every other use case, there are better options out there, may it be Tumbleweed or Nix for a rolling release, Arch in Distrobox on Silverblue, whatever. It sounds like way too much effort for what I would get. But each to their own.

Neither of both.

Both are more on the tinkerer-side, and for university you need something reliable and easy to use in my eyes.

And that might be Fedora Silverblue/ Atomic (or universal-blue.org to be more precise for QOL-tweaks).
It is definitely more simple, stable (release cycle) and also more reliable, since there’s only one base (Fedora packages + your DE), and therefore less configuration variability.

I’d also lose access to the AUR

No, you wouldn’t. Neither on Nix, nor on Fedora Atomic. Especially on Silverblue you layer and containerise a lot, and you can always use the pre-installed and self updating Distrobox to install Arch and use the AUR. That’s also what I do, and it works fine, even though I almost never feel the urge to use it.

It sounds like your configuration is not sufficiently backed up.

It is backed up. 1x per auto-backup (Borg, included in the AIO) and 2x on different external drives.
The setup isn’t complicated too, basically barebones Debian with docker.

It’s just that setting everything up (once) again is annoying and highly inconvenient.

But, thank you for your tips on the LUKS-stuff, I will consider it! 🙂

I quite like your idea of just moving my data (not the other stuff) to another drive.

How can I decrypt my drive without a GUI, monitor or keyboard?

I’ve had quite a bad experience with police for example.

30 cops raided my home because of something trivial (I ordered a bit of non-psychoactive CBD-weed, which is, even in the most restrictive country you can imagine, ridiculous).

Of course, I got the whole experience-pack, including strip searches and confiscating all electronics.

Even though I believe them getting hold of any data wouldn’t have changed much, I’m still glad I had my devices encrypted.

Just knowing they didn’t see my cringy pictures of my teeny-me, where I discovered Snapchat filters, is a big relief. 😅

Yeah… that traumatized me a bit and maybe that’s the reason I’m worrying.

Also, you could never know what will happen in the future. Maybe my GF will turn crazy tomorrow and use those embarrassing pictures against me. Who knows?

I believe everyone should use encryption, even if they don’t have much to hide…

I had the expection that Linux is already set up as a multi-user environment and has that feature built in.

Of course that “isolation” of data, as I had it in my mind, wouldn’t be really secure, but it doesn’t have to be that for me. I just don’t want anyone to access it easily.

Crosspost. Click on it and you’ll land on my original post.

I didn’t want to duplicate it. You can always suggest me how to make the crosspost more visible, I just did it how my client set it up for me.

My threat model isn’t high. Just normal stuff everyone has, but that would be disadvantagely if someone else got them.

It’s more if a precautionary measure. It doesn’t have to be super safe, but better than nothing.

Even if firearms were legal in my country, I wouldn’t murder someone because of some embarrassing photos where I discovered Snapchat filters when I was 15.

Also, if they were legal, they wouldn’t help, since I’m not 24/7 at home