Aurora Linux

[PNWDweller]

Aurora Linux (KDE)  , Bluefin Linux (Gnome)

______________________

Since around the Pandemic, I've been mostly using Arch Linux which was always rock solid for me.  I did encounter some random issues from time to time, but I pretty much relied on it, yet I found myself sometimes having to reinstall it from time to time because eventually, something broke.  I liked living on the edge some and that would eventually come around and bite me in the behind.    Lately, I had been getting some seriously random reboots while using the computer or while it was idle.   I was on Lemmy  and someone asked about which distro to try next as they are a Distro Hopper.  Someone mentioned Aurora Linux which is the KDE Spin of Fedora Linux but immutable and a rolling distro.  After the last and final random reboot, I figured why not try it and I'm glad i did! 

One of the coolest features I think of this is it's really designed to stay out your way, if you allow it, it will auto update your system so you don't have to worry about updates, and the majority of the software installs are Flatpak.  They give you the option to install apps via the rpm-ostree and layer the system but I guess soon, they are going to patch the system to prevent layering.     Aurora Linux comes in two flavors, standard users and developer edition (I chose the developer) which comes with boxbuddy installed, as well as Kubernetes, docker and podman for containerization.   Boxbuddy allows you to install an OS in a distrobox type of container, but it also shares your system so it allows you to run apps not available in Fedora natively or Flatpak to be installed in the OS of your choice.    For this, I installed scrcpy in an Arch container so I could mirror my phone's screen.  The GUIScrcpy flatpak didn't work so I went with that route.    So, within my shell, I just invoke it and it loads.  You can also install an app into your applications menu so it runs it natively.

For the last couple of years, I wanted to really get into an immutable system, but didn't really feel like I wanted to mess with NixOS with the declarative configurations which I know once you are done, it's only a matter of reloading that file to 'restore' your system to the state you want if something should go wrong.   I just couldn't get my head into it.   BlendOS is making an Arch system similar to this and also immutable, but is still a bit young in the development and I found it to be randomly crashing.    On my 14 year old Dell Opitplex i7 desktop, it's been quite stable and responsive.

If you are ever curious about either Aurora Linux, or Bluefin Linux, spin one up in a VM and give it a good test, it's certainly an OS designed to let you do your work without having to worry about maintaining it unless you want to which it certainly does!    I did notice it seems to lock up during the install where the HDD light is dark and the progress bar sticks around 20% for a good 20-30  minutes, but it is actually doing it's thing in the background and offered a good break from the computer to go eat, get some coffee or whatever. 

 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Looks like they haven't updated Aurora for a while.. Says its discontinued. Via DistroWatch. I haven't seen them post until after 2007..

It might still be a part of Fedora, but it's basically dead.

I personally never liked Fedora or RedHat. But that's just me.

I've been distro hopping, too. I been all over the board from Arch to Debian and back.

[Hatopai]

Quote

Since around the Pandemic, I've been mostly using Arch Linux which was always rock solid for me

Quote

yet I found myself sometimes having to reinstall it from time to time because eventually, something broke

Quote

someone asked about which distro to try next as they are a Distro Hopper

M'yea... Tell us how you love your "new distro" du jour... You are living the dream aren't you 🤣

[satukoro]

On 04/01/2025 at 22:57, PNWDweller said:

Aurora Linux (KDE)  , Bluefin Linux (Gnome)

______________________

Since around the Pandemic, I've been mostly using Arch Linux which was always rock solid for me.  I did encounter some random issues from time to time, but I pretty much relied on it, yet I found myself sometimes having to reinstall it from time to time because eventually, something broke.  I liked living on the edge some and that would eventually come around and bite me in the behind.    Lately, I had been getting some seriously random reboots while using the computer or while it was idle.   I was on Lemmy  and someone asked about which distro to try next as they are a Distro Hopper.  Someone mentioned Aurora Linux which is the KDE Spin of Fedora Linux but immutable and a rolling distro.  After the last and final random reboot, I figured why not try it and I'm glad i did! 

One of the coolest features I think of this is it's really designed to stay out your way, if you allow it, it will auto update your system so you don't have to worry about updates, and the majority of the software installs are Flatpak.  They give you the option to install apps via the rpm-ostree and layer the system but I guess soon, they are going to patch the system to prevent layering.     Aurora Linux comes in two flavors, standard users and developer edition (I chose the developer) which comes with boxbuddy installed, as well as Kubernetes, docker and podman for containerization.   Boxbuddy allows you to install an OS in a distrobox type of container, but it also shares your system so it allows you to run apps not available in Fedora natively or Flatpak to be installed in the OS of your choice.    For this, I installed scrcpy in an Arch container so I could mirror my phone's screen.  The GUIScrcpy flatpak didn't work so I went with that route.    So, within my shell, I just invoke it and it loads.  You can also install an app into your applications menu so it runs it natively.

For the last couple of years, I wanted to really get into an immutable system, but didn't really feel like I wanted to mess with NixOS with the declarative configurations which I know once you are done, it's only a matter of reloading that file to 'restore' your system to the state you want if something should go wrong.   I just couldn't get my head into it.   BlendOS is making an Arch system similar to this and also immutable, but is still a bit young in the development and I found it to be randomly crashing.    On my 14 year old Dell Opitplex i7 desktop, it's been quite stable and responsive.

If you are ever curious about either Aurora Linux, or Bluefin Linux, spin one up in a VM and give it a good test, it's certainly an OS designed to let you do your work without having to worry about maintaining it unless you want to which it certainly does!    I did notice it seems to lock up during the install where the HDD light is dark and the progress bar sticks around 20% for a good 20-30  minutes, but it is actually doing it's thing in the background and offered a good break from the computer to go eat, get some coffee or whatever. 

 

I switched from Mint to OpenSUSE recently and the transition has been pretty cool for sure.

This is also my first time using kde and frankly i liked it so much i switched all my computer DEs to plasma.

[ShadeOfBlue]

On 04/01/2025 at 22:21, Mindovermaster said:

Looks like they haven't updated Aurora for a while.. Says its discontinued. Via DistroWatch. I haven't seen them post until after 2007..

It might still be a part of Fedora, but it's basically dead.

OP is not referring to Aurora SPARC Linux.

Aurora is one of several distros by Universal Blue, which is itself based on Fedora Atomic Desktops.

[+Elі Subscriber²]

Bluefin Linux looks quite interesting. I love the design of both the Bluefin and the Aurora websites.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 05/01/2025 at 08:42, ShadeOfBlue said:

OP is not referring to Aurora SPARC Linux.

Aurora is one of several distros by Universal Blue, which is itself based on Fedora Atomic Desktops.

Oh, nevermind then. Carry on..