Yo Bluefin fam, just skimmed that DistroWatch piece (May 12, 2025), and it’s got some truth but totally whiffs on our cloud-native groove. They’re on point about the missing live desktop—kinda sucks for hardware vibes—and Anaconda’s Wi-Fi fail is a straight-up oof. But dunking on our seven package managers? Nah, that’s our dev toolkit! Flatpak, distrobox, and the gang are clutch for containerized workflows, not clutter. And the CPU/GPU ISO picks? That’s Bluefin keeping our setups silky. They’re sizing us up like some old-school distro, but we’re out here crafting cloud-ready coder dens. Keep slaying, and maybe toss in a live ISO for the paranoid penguins.
We know about the LiveCDs. It’s a pretty easy tell when someone doesn’t read the docs because all of the things are documented, including links to our test live CDs.
When you see comments about 7 package managers I wouldn’t worry about it. We have podman we have access to all present and future package managers at all times. Of course we can use everything, why wouldn’t we be able to? You can also install other package management tools like uv, pixi, asdf, and mise
It’s not our business to tell you how to manage your workloads, use the tool you want.
The review states:
GNOME Software worked well for me and I was able to find, install, and remove
packages without any problems.
Perfect!
The problems get worse when you think it’s a Linux distro and then go digging around – which is why they think we use dnf despite it not being mentioned anywhere in our docs, etc and then expecting people who want Linux to not know what GPU they have. Shrug I wouldn’t sweat it, Bluefin doesn’t target distro hoppers.
But for the record Bluefin has two package managers: Flathub via GNOME Software, and Homebrew for CLI users.
This led to this cycle that’s like “Ok, another day, another linux distro” and you get so used to just blowing things away that the idea of long term maintenance isn’t front of mind. And people just start to think that it’s normal that you’re supposed to do this on a regular basis.
You don’t really appreciate it until you’re a few years in. We’re about to turn four years old and my systems are running “fresh install” fresh. This is why we focus on the core audience, this is a marathon not a sprint. Which is weird because they must think we’re brand new or something but in terms of tech years this thing is old lol.
It’s one of the reasons we add a “Forged on” date on the fastfetch, it’s a personal cool thing about your rig that you’re proud of:
But there are some good things to consider. We’ve had an open issue to hide boxbuddy from the UI in non-dx mode. (And it’s old!)) Most new users don’t need to be in there, that’s for linux experts who know they need their old style linux.
But the only way I’d do that is if kept the UI there for people who have it installed otherwise I’d get flogged. Like if you remove boxbuddy the logomenu item goes away, but if you install boxbuddy or distroshelf the menu should be there. Most of our audience is still geeky but most people will just ignore the Containers entry entirely for now.
But also we are not looking to change things, of course I want this but I think we all want a smaller bluefin more for maintenance reasons. But who knows!
The LiveCD work is looking good, it won’t be long.
I think Distrowatch’s Jessie Smith was unfair about the need to know which GPU one has. Because isn’t that the case for Windows too?
I installed lots of Windows versions on lots of computers, and I’ve always had to know which hardware they had in order to make sure the right drivers were used. Gamers know they should not use Windows’ default drivers, they download and install the right one from AMD or NVIDIA.
Mr. Smith did not take into account the fact that even regular users don’t install Windows. Either they don’t need to (it was already installed on their computer), or they ask someone who knows how. I’m that “tech guy” family and friends ask to help them with that, so I know.
Why would it be different for Linux? The installation process is for technically-minded people. Even for Windows. I’d even say especially for Windows.
The real question is: is the OS easy to use and operate?
I didn’t even realize my Aurora DX got upgraded from 41 to 42 this morning. I’d say it’s pretty easy to operate. And the desktop environment is the same as plenty other distributions.
I’ve been preparing my mother for The End of 10 and have been preparing her for Linux. I’ve been wondering what distribution I would install on her laptop.
Honestly this was the biggest surprise for me as well, moving from 41 to 42 on Aurora. On the machine running Aurora right now, I previously was testing Fedora Kinoite. But even there, I had to rebase the system to move from 41 to 42. But with Aurora, it was just… there. It’s, I dare say, boring (and that is a huge compliment to the devs, by the way).
@j0rge
I came here right after I read that Distrowatch article just now. I was just about to say how the article doesn’t represent an opinion of someone angry at the distro that bluefin doesn’t do the things they’re used to of the average distro doing. I’d say it gives a great insight into the perspective of a completely fresh newcomer - take it as an opportunity. You get to see what might/does seem confusing to them and might need some extra attention in the docs (even tho we noticed the said docs were skipped), tho it confused me as well about how Jesse Smith found the CPU arch selection and the choice between NVIDIA/AMD/Intel unpleasant, again tho - this just points out how they were unaware how these images are prepared or how it affects the system after the installation (rpm-ostree).
And I will completely agree (in a good way) with the voiced statement that Universal Blue is just boring when it comes to updates - some of my colleagues at the office are using Fedora and they’re running into different hiccups from time to time with the new DNF5 that Fedora switched to as of the last release. Meanwhile, my installation of Bluefin “Just Works” and I have not had to worry about setting aside a weekend to do upgrades from 40 to 41 or from 41 to 42 and weighing between risking an upgrade or to just do a clean install.
I think there is some psychology at play here.
I’m not a psychologist, so I’ll use analogy.
People are used to their 1975 Ford LTD.
You don’t just jump in and take off.
You pump the gas three times, then crank the engine for 10 seconds.
If it’s not running, wait 5 seconds and try again.
Repeat three times.
If the weather is warm, you may have flooded it. Hold the gas pedal all the way down and crank for 30 seconds.
With enough iterations, and maybe some ether, eventually it will start.
I think it is disorienting to people who are accustomed to doing things the hard way.
It deskills using Linux. Some people may be taken aback, or even offended, that their hard earned skills are put on the back shelf. They may be subconsciously irritated that they don’t get a break from their work due to an update breaking their system; this would have previously given them a chance to play for an hour and solve the puzzle of why their application doesn’t run.
Further analogy: we don’t have to spend Saturday doing laundry; using the wringer washer (maybe with a gas engine), and hanging clothes on the line. We throw them in the washing machine and go do something else.
With Bluefin, see the announcement of an update, rpm-ostree status -v | less for a quick check, reboot, Bob’s your uncle.
Right, we don’t optimize for this crowd because we’re not in the business of exposing our users to the “average distro” experience because it doesn’t work for us.
This is because linux users think normal people install operating systems so they’re solving for a persona that doesn’t exist.
They do not know what they are missing … like: upgrade to the next major version of the OS in what felt like a normal reboot.
110% this. I am still working through anxiety caused by so many years of less-than-smooth upgrades (even, or perhaps especially, with Ubuntu LTS). But now I’ve gone through two upgrade cycles with zero glitches – the most recent one while I was in an AirBNB on vacation. Perhaps in a year it will start to feel mundane.
That is so well said, I was explaining this to a friend the other day, feeling torn inside. Like: now that I finally understand so many things, I don’t need that knowledge anymore. But my lazy - or boring, as others in this thread put it - side clearly wins. Why struggle with something when I don’t have to?
And again, just to be clear, I meant this as a compliment! I’m so used to incessantly checking Arch and Tumbleweed for updates (and yes I know I don’t have to do that) that it’s actually refreshing that a somewhat major update was just casually waiting for me to reboot into it. And then of course there’s the fact that, if for whatever reason I had issues with it, I just reboot back into a previous state, and I’m back up and running in like 2 minutes tops.
Can I use timeshift or even btrfs and snapper to mimic this behavior? Of course I can. But here, it’s already done for me. I don’t have to think about it, or design it, or configure it. It’s just happily humming along doing its thing.
The flip side of the coin is we have other things to do. I still hit skill ceilings, hit new problems and learn new things every single day. There’s more to Linux than messing with your OS, there’s the actual learning part.
One of the best automation nerds I’ve ever worked with would spend an entire 40 hour week to optimize a dev workflow for some silly single percentage optimization win. But when 1,000 people have to run that process over the course of two years, then it becomes crucial. Especially when everyone on the team does the same thing every single time they touch something. It’s a mindset.
Automating laziness is hard, that’s where we spend most of our time on.
Like I understood article, on Blufin web page: “Bluefin is designed to get out of your way.” How does this go with the select CPU arch and NVIDIA/AMD/Intel?
Article fails to notice that:
Using Blufin is designed to get out of your way (and can be used by average Joe and Jane).
Installing Blufin requires some technical knowledge (performed by “local guru”).
In article: “I would have had a more streamlined experience just sticking with upstream’s Silverblue,” but it fails to recognize Silverblue has open-source only drivers. Author should investigate what is main difference between Silverblue and Blufin, to recommend to use one or another.
Like I understood article, on Blufin web page: “Bluefin is designed to get out of your way.” How does this go with the select CPU arch and NVIDIA/AMD/Intel?
Article fails to notice that:
Using Blufin is designed to get out of your way (and can be used by average Joe and Jane).
Installing Blufin requires some technical knowledge (performed by “local guru”).
In article: “I would have had a more streamlined experience just sticking with upstream’s Silverblue,” but it fails to recognize Silverblue has open-source only drivers. Author should investigate what is main difference between Silverblue and Blufin, to recommend to use one or another.
I’ll agree with your points but it also depends from what perspective we’re looking at - if we’re looking from a perspective of a regular distro … yes, it does seem like an unnecessary hasstle, but if you look at it from Immutable distro perspective with layered rpm-ostree packaging - and it quickly becomes a hasstle (I’ve used Silverblue in the past with nvidia proprietary drivers - setup quickly becomes anything but streamlined). As for the Open Source drivers - the HW specs in that article point to Intel integrated graphics (Intel HD 3000 possibly?), it makes sense, however, had they had to deal with Hybrid Graphics or even just nvidia drivers with multi-display setup, they’d quickly appreciate this “complex” selection between Intel/AMD and nvidia.
