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<h1 id="checking-out-blendos">Checking out blendOS</h1>
<p>blendOS is self-described as "Arch Linux, made declarative,
immutable and atomic." And yeah, that's a pretty good
description of what it is. But you can never <em>really</em>
tell what a distro is like without trying it, so...</p>
<h2 id="installation">Installation</h2>
<p>I decided to just run blendOS in a virtual machine; I had a
bunch of data I hadn't backed up yet and was actively working
on, and didn't feeling like switching yet given I had no
experience with blendOS v4[^1] - I've actually tried blendOS v3
before, back when v4 was in alpha, but it had practically zero
documentation, not even <code>man</code> pages, so I gave up on
it very quickly. But with v4, hopefully it's improved since
then.</p>
<h2 id="first-use">First use</h2>
<p>Upon first boot, blendOS drops you into a pretty standard
GNOME session, on account of the <code>/system.yaml</code> file
by default:</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre
class="language-yaml"><code class="language-yaml"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">impl</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main</span></span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">repo</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> https://pkg-repo.blendos.co</span></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">track</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> default-gnome</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>At first I wasn't sure what impl is doing, but it seems to be
combined with the track to get the URL for the raw
<code>yaml</code> file[^1].</p>
<p>This is actually a really interesting bit <em>which isn't
documented</em>, as it means you can just, say, host your own
track(s) for all your computers in a Git repo, and they can each
inherit from other configs[^2] or be overridden locally; this
actually seems like a very interesting and viable way to
centrally manage many computers running Linux, and given I'm
constantly switching between several computers; I can just put
my config(s) in one repo, and pull from that.</p>
<h2 id="configuration">Configuration</h2>
<p>It's quite basic, but blendOS actually works very well for
me; I already have a Git repo of <a
href="https://git.askiiart.net/askiiart/configs">all my
configs</a>, which are intended to be run from a clean
installation automatically, so for blendOS I just have to put
those scripts into the yaml file and adapt it so the packages
are listed in the YAML rather than being installed with
<code>pacman</code> or <code>yay</code>.</p>
<h2 id="problems">Problems</h2>
<p>Biggest of all blendOS's problems is how slow it is to
rebuild. It doesn't save "layers" of packages like <a
href="https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree"><code>rpm-ostree</code></a>
(as used by Fedora atomic)</p>
<h2 id="wishlist">Wishlist</h2>
<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
<ul>
<li>[1] <a href="https://blendos.co/">blendOS homepage</a></li>
<li>[2] <a
href="https://blendos.co/install/post-install/intro/">blendOS
post-install intro</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes</h2>
<ul>
<li>[^1] That is,
<code>http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main</code> +
<code>/</code> + <code>default-gnome</code> +
<code>.yaml</code></li>
<li>[^2] In the provided <code>blend-os/tracks</code> repo,
<code>default-gnome</code> actually inherits from the
<code>gnome</code> track.</li>
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# Checking out blendOS
blendOS is self-described as "Arch Linux, made declarative, immutable and atomic." And yeah, that's a pretty good description of what it is. But you can never *really* tell what a distro is like without trying it, so...
## Installation
I decided to just run blendOS in a virtual machine; I had a bunch of data I hadn't backed up yet and was actively working on, and didn't feeling like switching yet given I had no experience with blendOS v4[^1] - I've actually tried blendOS v3 before, back when v4 was in alpha, but it had practically zero documentation, not even `man` pages, so I gave up on it very quickly. But with v4, hopefully it's improved since then.
## First use
Upon first boot, blendOS drops you into a pretty standard GNOME session, on account of the `/system.yaml` file by default:
```yaml
impl: http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main
repo: https://pkg-repo.blendos.co
track: default-gnome
```
At first I wasn't sure what impl is doing, but it seems to be combined with the track to get the URL for the raw `yaml` file[^1].
This is actually a really interesting bit *which isn't documented*, as it means you can just, say, host your own track(s) for all your computers in a Git repo, and they can each inherit from other configs[^2] or be overridden locally; this actually seems like a very interesting and viable way to centrally manage many computers running Linux, and given I'm constantly switching between several computers; I can just put my config(s) in one repo, and pull from that.
## Configuration
blendOS's configuration is really simple:
```yaml
impl: http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main
repo: https://pkg-repo.blendos.co
track: default-gnome
arch-repo: 'https://repo-goes-here.example'
packages:
- 'fish'
aur-packages:
- 'EVEN-MORE-FISH'
services:
- 'service-goes-here'
user-services:
- 'user-service-goes-here'
package-repos:
- name: 'repo name'
repo-url: 'https://repo.url'
commands:
'echo hiiiiiii > /home/user/helloooooo'
```
It's quite basic, but blendOS actually works very well for me; I already have a Git repo of [all my configs](https://git.askiiart.net/askiiart/configs), which are intended to be run from a clean installation automatically, so for blendOS I just have to put those scripts into the yaml file and adapt it so the packages are listed in the YAML rather than being installed with `pacman` or `yay`.
## Problems
Biggest of all blendOS's problems is how slow it is to rebuild. It doesn't save "layers" of packages like [`rpm-ostree`](https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree) (as used by Fedora atomic)
## Wishlist
## Sources
- \[1\] [blendOS homepage](https://blendos.co/)
- \[2\] [blendOS post-install intro](https://blendos.co/install/post-install/intro/)
## Footnotes
- [^1] That is, `http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main` + `/` + `default-gnome` + `.yaml`
- [^2] In the provided `blend-os/tracks` repo, `default-gnome` actually inherits from the `gnome` track.