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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 - 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>
<p>Installation itself was simple: it's got a basic installer,
which notably allows for manual partitioning, but does
<em>not</em> allow for selecting which track to use (which we'll
get to later), though to be fair, that's <em>very</em> simple to
change post-installation.</p>
<img src="/assets/blendos/1.png"
title="blendOS live image boot: a basic GNOME desktop with a vertical white window in the center; it has the blendOS logo and a "Start" button, with the text "Welcome to blendOS", "Press Start to start installing blendOS!"" alt="blendOS live image boot: a basic GNOME desktop with a vertical white window in the center; it has the blendOS logo and a "Start" button, with the text "Welcome to blendOS", "Press Start to start installing blendOS!"" />
<h2 id="first-use">First use</h2>
<p>Upon first boot, blendOS drops you into a pretty standard
GNOME session with a graphical setup to add a user account, set
timezone, and all that.</p>
<p>Here's the default <code>/system.yaml</code> file
provided:</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 according to
the <a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/configs/system/"><code>system.yaml</code>
docs</a> seems to be combined with the track to get the URL for
the raw <code>yaml</code> file.<a href="#fn1"
class="footnote-ref" id="fnref1"
role="doc-noteref"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p>This is actually a really interesting bit, 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<a
href="#fn2" class="footnote-ref" id="fnref2"
role="doc-noteref"><sup>2</sup></a> 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>
<p>(details on this at <a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/configs/system/"><code>system.yaml</code>
docs</a> -> Creating a track repo/webserver)</p>
<h2 id="configuration">Configuration</h2>
<p>blendOS's configuration is really simple:</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb2"><pre
class="language-yaml"><code class="language-yaml"><span id="cb2-1"><a href="#cb2-1" 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="cb2-2"><a href="#cb2-2" 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="cb2-3"><a href="#cb2-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">track</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> default-gnome</span></span>
<span id="cb2-4"><a href="#cb2-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-5"><a href="#cb2-5" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">arch-repo</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'https://repo-goes-here.example'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-6"><a href="#cb2-6" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-7"><a href="#cb2-7" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">packages</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-8"><a href="#cb2-8" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="kw">-</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'fish'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-9"><a href="#cb2-9" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-10"><a href="#cb2-10" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">aur-packages</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-11"><a href="#cb2-11" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="kw">-</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'EVEN-MORE-FISH'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-12"><a href="#cb2-12" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-13"><a href="#cb2-13" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">services</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-14"><a href="#cb2-14" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="kw">-</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'service-goes-here'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-15"><a href="#cb2-15" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-16"><a href="#cb2-16" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">user-services</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-17"><a href="#cb2-17" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="kw">-</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'user-service-goes-here'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-18"><a href="#cb2-18" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-19"><a href="#cb2-19" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">package-repos</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-20"><a href="#cb2-20" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="kw">-</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="fu">name</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'repo name'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-21"><a href="#cb2-21" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="fu">repo-url</span><span class="kw">:</span><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'https://repo.url'</span></span>
<span id="cb2-22"><a href="#cb2-22" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb2-23"><a href="#cb2-23" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">commands</span><span class="kw">:</span></span>
<span id="cb2-24"><a href="#cb2-24" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="at"> </span><span class="st">'echo hiiiiiii > /home/user/helloooooo'</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>(from <a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/configs/system/"><code>system.yaml</code>
docs</a>)</p>
<p>It's quite basic, but blendOS's design 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>, <code>paru</code> or the like (at least,
not directly, via <code>akshara</code> instead)</p>
<h2 id="problems">Problems</h2>
<p><em>By far</em>, the biggest of all blendOS's problems is how
slow it is to rebuild. It doesn't save "layers" like <a
href="https://coreos.github.io/rpm-ostree/"><code>rpm-ostree</code></a>
(as used by Fedora atomic); instead, it just completely rebuilds
the system every single time. Because of this, it takes a long
time to run the updater/rebuilder, even to just install one more
package.</p>
<p>Besides that, my only complaints are:</p>
<ol type="1">
<li>The <code>akshara</code>'s (the update/rebuild tool) major
issue with reinheritance (see <a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/configs/system/"><code>system.yaml</code>
docs</a> -> Inheritance).</li>
<li>Its community and issue tracking is primarily on Discord,
which is then indexed by Answer Overflow so it's searchable with
Google and the like; there's no dedicated developer space (only
one issue on <a href="https://git.blendos.co/blendOS">their
GitLab</a>, where <code>akshara</code> is hosted.) However,
given you must be pretty competent with Linux to be using
blendOS in the first place, and how small the dev team and
community is, this isn't much of an issue.</li>
<li>There's a lack of documentation for some bits, though the
docs are updated and getting new additions constantly.</li>
</ol>
<p>I've encountered more bugs and missing features since then,
but I'll talk about that in my next post, as they'll fit better
there.</p>
<h2 id="wishlist">Wishlist</h2>
<p>This is some other stuff I want, not necessarily problems,
but things I'd like added</p>
<ul>
<li>I'd like an equivalent of this at the user level specifying
packages, repos, and commands for other (containerized)
distros.</li>
<li>I'd like to be able to automatically install blendOS - to be
able to script it rather than going through the GUI. Just a
tarball of the installed system would be great.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
<p>Sources are linked as they're used throughout, and also
listed separately here.</p>
<!-- Link definition are above, separate (rendered) links below -->
<ol type="1">
<li><a href="https://blendos.co/">blendOS Homepage</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://blendos.co/install/post-install/intro/">Introduction
to blendOS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://blendos.co/reference/">blendOS
reference</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/configs/system/"><code>system.yaml</code>
docs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://git.blendos.co/blendOS">blendOS
GitLab</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://coreos.github.io/rpm-ostree/"><code>rpm-ostree</code>
docs</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://blendos.co/contributing/#git-structure">blendOS's
Git structure</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Note: As I write this, the docs, particularly the <a
href="https://blendos.co/reference/">blendOS reference</a>, are
being constantly revised. During the process of writing this, an
entire new section has been added, though this post doesn't
touch on that and said section is unused here - it'll come into
play in the next post.</p>
<h2 id="footnotes">Footnotes</h2>
<!-- Note if you're viewing the Markdown version: [^1] is for footnotes; that's the formatting used by Pandoc, but VS Code, for example, doesn't support it. -->
<section id="footnotes"
class="footnotes footnotes-end-of-document" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1"><p>That is,
<code>http://github.com/blend-os/tracks/raw/main</code> +
<code>/</code> + <code>default-gnome</code> +
<code>.yaml</code>; also, I probably should've just... read the
documentation from the start, instead of figuring this out on my
own and only later checking the docs.<a href="#fnref1"
class="footnote-back" role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li>
<li id="fn2"><p>For example, in the provided
<code>blend-os/tracks</code> repo, <code>default-gnome</code>
actually inherits from the <code>gnome</code> track.<a
href="#fnref2" class="footnote-back"
role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li>
</ol>
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