I’m a Linux user for about 15 years and a teacher in an adult education centre. We have about 30 non-windows11-compatible laptops which have still windows 10 installed.
Now I was asked to install Linux on them, what makes me really happy.
I’m thinking now about which distribution I should take.
I want to install a very stable and robust system with as less required maintenance as possible. Out of this reason I think Bluefin would be the best distribution.
But I’m not sure to install bluefin:latest or bluefin:lts. So I have some questions:
Which one has less updates to download AT ONCE? (It wold be nice when the WiFi-Connection would not be charged so much, when 10-15 Laptops are started at the same time)
Which one promises a longer period where is nothing to do? (Bluefin is updating even the mayor versions automatically (43→44→45→…) is that correct? What does Bluefin:lts, when CentOS 11 comes?)
Is Bluefin:lts production ready and stable? Or is it an experimental version?
I need some extensions to make the desktop user-friendly for users who only knows windows. (Appindicator, Arc-Menu, Dash-to-Panel, maybe some Desktop icons extension, if wanted)
It’s important, that all extensions are compatible with the new version at the time when Bluefin implement them.
Is it better to take standard Bluefin and layer them (so they are 100% always compatible)? Or are they in CentOS sources as well? Or can I assume that they are compatible when the new CentOS version 11 is coming because of older package base?
Certainly, Bluefin LTS is going to be a longer stable version. Mainline Bluefin I think is fine as well, though. Maybe @hanthor and @tulilirockz can say something here since on the page (Introduction to Bluefin LTS | Bluefin) they support it. Seems like your use case would be what they are looking to support
I’m not sure if you would need to, but to customize it for your needs you might want to build your own image pulling from the Bluefin upstream, especially if you are going to layer a bunch of packages. It’s not hard but worth it. I build some images nightly on GitHub with actions and it works nicely. That way the “atomic” nature of the upgrades are preserved.
Layering is not recommended because it can cause issues with updates.
Rather than making GNOME more windows-like using extensions, why not just use Aurora? Then you don’t need to worry about broken extensions when major upgrades happen.
Whether you choose Bluefin, Bluefin LTS, or Aurora, to have less downloads at once, you can change the update schedule:
sudo systemctl edit uupd.timer
You can make it check for updates at a random time or day, if you like.
Sounds good! But is it ready for production use already?
I thought already about this. Maybe I will do a custom image.
Maybe it’s just me, but in my experience KDE has still more bugs than GNOME. I tested Aurora in a VM and it’s really awesome and beautiful. But there is for example a bug, that when I copy a file in Dolphin, then close Dolphin and want to paste it on the Desktop, I get an error-message and the file can’t be pasted. (Dolphin must remain opened for success.)
I know, GNOME don’t even allow files on the Desktop without extensions, but I don’t want the users of these laptops to experience bugs. They should experience Linux as rock solid OS…
I looked at it and when I’m right, there is already a timer with random delay, so that the laptops won’t update all at the same time?
The RandomizedDelaySec=15m in the new timer delays around the local 4am time set in the timer, so that the number of systems hitting that period don’t all hit at the same time. You could, of course, increase that for your laptops, especially if you don’t have a bunch of bandwidth to spare at that time.
If a system is not up (suspended, sleep, off, etc), the next time it comes online it will start the uupd service to pick it up.
I installed Bluefin LTS in a VM (GNOME Boxes). Although it’s great, I think it’s not ready for production systems yet.
I recognized two bugs:
If you want to shut down, in the dialogue there is a warning, that GNOME Shell isn’t responding.
I did a “ujust update” today, and after the rpm-ostree update and flatpak update I got:
Error: Please update your system curl or set HOMEBREW_CURL_PATH to a newer version.
Minimum required version: 7.41.0
Your curl version:
Your curl executable:
Error: Please update your system Git or set HOMEBREW_GIT_PATH to a newer version.
Minimum required version: 2.7.0
Your Git version: …
Your Git executable: /usr/bin/git
==> Downloading https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/portable-ruby/portable-ruby/blobs/sha256:1764a2629da860b95afc96704725ec7c4cdb333724a9066ccc41ca6c55aa4f62
==> Downloading https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-portable-ruby/releases/download//portable-ruby-.x86_64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
Error: Failed to download ruby from the following locations:
https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/portable-ruby/portable-ruby/blobs/sha256:1764a2629da860b95afc96704725ec7c4cdb333724a9066ccc41ca6c55aa4f62
https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-portable-ruby/releases/download//portable-ruby-.x86_64_linux.bottle.tar.gz
Do not file an issue on GitHub about this; you will need to figure out for
yourself what issue with your internet connection restricts your access to
GitHub (used for Homebrew updates and binary packages).
Error: Failed to upgrade Homebrew Portable Ruby!
If there’s no Homebrew Portable Ruby available for your processor:
install Ruby 3.4 with your system package manager (or rbenv/ruby-build)
make it first in your PATH
try again
error: Recipe update failed with exit code 1
I guess the second error is because of the older packages of CentOS Stream.
So I think, I will take normal Bluefin, that’s based on Fedora Silverblue. I have been using Fedora Silverblue since 2024 and my experience is very positive. Bluefin should add the advance that it don’t have to be updated manually to the next major version every half year, so maintainence should be much less.
