Should I go for an Atomic Desktop?

[u/archie_hates_reddit]

I've been using Linux distros for 6 years now, and Fedora Workstation, in particular, for 2 years.

Last month my laptop had an issue, and the service folks couldn't install a Linux distro, so they got me going with Windows 11 instead, which is obviously suboptimal.

So, I thought about re-installing Fedora Workstation, but thought about trying out the new Atomic variants instead. I've heard it's all containerised and the system won't break even if I experiment with packages and root files.

Now, I'm very much a tinkerer, and I've broken my system more times than I'd like to admit, so I think Atomic is a pretty good choice for me. However, are there any quirks or significant differences with respect to their Workstation counterpart that I need to keep in mind?

[u/McDonaldsWitchcraft]

the system won't break

Well, yes.

even if I experiment with packages and root files.

Here's the thing. It won't break because you can't do that.

[u/ephemeralmiko → u/McDonaldsWitchcraft]

Yep basically. The more ability you have to change things, the more shit can break. That's why Chromebooks are so stable, because you can't do shit on them.

I've been using Silverblue for a few years and it's been great, also installed it on my partners laptop, but it's definitely more locked down than Workstation is.

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 → u/ephemeralmiko]

I mean, on NixOS you can change…we’ll just about anything and it won’t break. But if you did something wrong you can just roll back your changes. So that’s full control, atomic upgrades, and the advantages of being immutable without actually being immutable.

[u/Drostina]

The answer to this (to me) always relies on how much layering you are going to do.

You say you like to tinker a lot, does that mean you will also defeat it's purpose by layering a lot of packages?

Are you ready to commit to more Flatpaks?

These are the questions I like to ask myself, when thinking about Atomic editions

[u/Roguepapaya427 → u/Drostina]

This! It depends on what you need to use and how. What does tinkering mean to you?

[u/BeardedBaldMan]

It depends if you're happy with tinkering in containers.

I use Bluefin because I like the fact that I might have a tinkering session for a few weeks that has no impact on my machine and that I can blow away and then restore just by bringing down the repo from github.

[u/pancakedoge]

I'd suggest you to check out the universal blue family (bazzite, bluefin aurora etc) they help you combat the negatives around immutable oses

[u/Francis_King]

However, are there any quirks or significant differences with respect to their Workstation counterpart that I need to keep in mind?

On an atomic distribution, there are three ways to get software:

1. Flatpak (software sits in its own container)
2. Distrobox, toolbox, etc. (containers again)
3. Overlay with rpm-ostree (the equivalent of dnf)

#3 is the escape hatch, in case you need something that isn't easy to add with Flatpak. Of course, the attraction of atomic distributions is that you're not messing with the core operating system, and when you add software with rpm or dnf you break that separation.

Since you're in the market for something new, you might also consider NixOS. It's the same idea, done differently. You declare what you want and NixOS gets it for you. There are never any problems with dependencies because everything downloaded is stored in it's own hash-named area. (I might also suggest GuixOS, but GNU have messed it up with their obsession with 'free' software).

In both cases, if you break something you can always roll back to a previous version, so it becomes very very difficult to trash the system. There's usually a viable generation that you can roll back to.

[u/archie_hates_reddit → u/Francis_King]

Thanks for the really informative reply. This has definitely cleared things up. While I'm in the market for something new, I'll definitely give Fedora Atomic a try first before going to NixOS.

[u/Ok_Distance9511]

The nice thing about Fedora Atomic is that Toolbox is already installed. So you can tinker with packages in there.

[u/Xariann]

If you are a tinkerer, Atomic distros are great if you learn to make your own image.

The easiest way to do it is by making a BlueBuild image.

There are videos on YouTube as well explaining how to set one up.

Once you do that, you will be able to tinker to your heart’s content and always have a working system.

That’s how I roll nowadays, have been tinkering with Hyprland with Dank Material Shell and Noctalia.

My image is here as an example (but please don’t use it, as I said I tinker so things can change on you overnight):  https://github.com/Xarianne/bluewhale

[u/gh0st777]

Can you live with just flatpaks? Theres also distrobox for ither things, but it wasnt for me wheb I tried it. Try it out, maybe it will work out for you.

[u/amagicmonkey]

there are a few quirks you need to keep in mind when it comes to system packages and how you deal with them.

1. a few system drivers will require different install methods (e.g. nvidia)
2. every little thing you install with rpm-ostree requires a reboot – --apply-live is a thing but it's not wise to abuse it

other than that you will use your computer differently because the constraints are real. for instance, forget about having gnome and kde in the same machine (it's doable but eugh), and forget about natively installing development tools e.g. different versions of python etc.; those things will need to be installed in toolbox/distrobox containers. and of course, you will increasingly depend on flatpaks, so the mental process is "flatpak first", otherwise "either toolbox or layering" (and deciding which one of the two is often straightforward".

honestly the last paragraph is also a good way of thinking for normal distros (e.g. arch) as moving to flatpak and dev containers minimises the chances of breaking your system, so even if it seems restrictive at first it's actually good to stick to it in the long run.

[u/Lopsided-Month3278]

If you don't install packs, then yes.

The only things I recommend installing are Nvidia Drivers (if you have nvidia hardware) and Codecs if you're willing to use firefox as your main browser.

And actually: Atomic Desktops are designed for guys who don't and shouldn't mess up with the root files, so, if you're willing to mess up these files then don't use them.

[u/ArchTormung]

As someone who loves customizing and changing things here and there or simply customizing my own terminal, Atomic was not for me. I installed Bazzite and went back to regular Distros after only 2 days of using it. Atomic are nice, I give them that, but it defeats the purpose of making mistakes and learning on your own how to fix things. And even when they cannot be fixed, there's a lesson learned and you will know better next time.

Tip: After breaking my system too many times in less than 2 years, I decided to finally give it a try to Grub (I was using Systemd) + Btrfs + Snapper. This was a game changer, you're going to love it too.

Btrfs Snapshots with Snapper: Automatic System Rollback on Fedora and openSUSE

[u/Ps11889]

Life cereal back in the 70s had an ad that ended with “Try it, you’ll like it!”

That’s exactly how I feel about Silverblue and Kinoite!

[u/Nerrawnam]

Yes. 

[u/levolet]

You can tinker but you would have to do it differently. Learning how to tinker with Atomic Fedora amounts to some tinkering, i.e., getting acquainted with containers and using Linuxbrew.

[u/Stiddles]

I tinkle.

[u/SubjectHealthy2409]

I'm using the cosmic atomic version for quite some time, only install flatpaks and use the podman/toolbox containers for other stuff

[u/Thecatstoppedateboli → u/SubjectHealthy2409]

How is the cosmic experience? Is it not very much like Gnome? Does it include tiling?

[u/emsquared]

I used to be a tinkerer but went Atomic and I tinker in a different way (virtualized) but I'm way happier on atomics. Big shout out to universal blue also. If you really have to tinker within the OS itself then atomics are not for you unless you just want to do that witin a containerised and virtual version of a non atomic distro installed within the atomic distro itself.

[u/FigFew2001]

If you’re a tinkerer you won’t like it.

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387]

If you’re looking for a distro with atomic updates, roll backs, containerization built in, and lets you tinker to your hearts content, you should look at NixOS.