We don't know how this will end, but stable versions keep coming. A few moments ago, Rudra Saraswat announced the availability of blendOS v3, and as already we had advanced a month ago, among its novelties we have that it already supports up to 9 different distributions. Or 10, if we count Ubuntu 22.04 separately, the last LTS of the Canonical system, and Ubuntu 23.04, the last stable version of the normal cycle that will be supported for 9 months.
The young developer says it's done available in seven graphic environments, and that you can switch between them with a simple command. The environments it is in are GNOME, KDE (Plasma), Cinnamon, Xfce, LXQt, MATE and Deepin. It is striking that Unity is not on the list, since it is the same developer who maintains it, unless the community is not very interested, in which case it would be a wise decision.
blendOS v3 updates in the background
El command to switch between available desktops es sudo system track, and after introducing it we will see the list of available DEs. You just have to enter the number of the environment you want to use, press enter and wait a moment. The change is made automatically. And the good thing is that, thanks to its immutability, we will not experience failures or incompatibilities for using different libraries.
BlendOS v3 updates happen in the background, and the next reboot replaces the old installation with the newer one. This distribution is immutable, so it is difficult for upgrading to break anything. They are basically complete images that can be tinkered with, such as installing new software. But almost everything goes by containers.
In blendOS v3 application installations have been simplified. Just double-click a DEB, RPM, pkg.tarzst, or APK to install them in a container.
New CLI-like utilities
On the other hand, two CLI-type tools (command lines) have been introduced:
- system It allows you to install packages on the same host, which is useful because it allows you to install software such as drivers and virtualization software from the Arch Linux repositories.
- user replaces the previous blend, and allows you to create and manage containers and associations, as well as generate and move dotfiles and containers between different machines with blendOS.
How to install blendOS V3 on your computer
To install blendOS V3 on your computer, follow these steps:
- As almost always when trying to install an operating system, the first thing is to create the installation media. Being Linux, this media can be created on a USB, for which you can follow this tutorial which explains how to do it with Etcher. Another option is to use the (Raspberry Pi) Imager, and the process is similar. The ISOs are here.
- After the installation media is created, the next thing to do is to boot from it. To do this, if it has never been done before, you have to go to the computer's BIOS and change the order to start from USB first, or you can also activate the option to check the start after pressing a key and do it this way.
- Once we start in blendOS V3 and close the Tour, we will see the following, and we just have to click on “Start”.
- In the next step you have to choose the keyboard layout. The first thing is to click on "Search", then look for our language, which is in English and you have to look for "spain" if we want Spanish to appear, we choose the variant and accept. With the keyboard chosen, click on «Next».
- The next window will help us to choose the time zone. It is usual that it has been configured correctly from what we have indicated in the previous step. If this is not the case, the area where we live or the one we want to use as configuration is chosen. Once configured, click on "Next".
- Similar to the previous step, now we will do the same with the language. Once the one we want has been chosen, and also how the date and time will be presented, we click on “Next”.
- The next step is where we will create the user. We put full name, if we wish and if we do not also indicate the user there, the username and password twice. Then we click on «Next».
- In the next step we are going to indicate the type of installation, more specifically partitioning. The best option for inexperienced users is to click on the partition, then "Next" and let it take up everything automatically. If you're familiar with GParted-like tools (in fact, it uses GParted to make them) and so on, and you also know the recommended Linux partitioning, you can click “Switch to manual partitioning” and make your changes there. The good thing is that clicking on this option brings up an explanation; The bad thing for those who do not speak the language is that it is in English.
- A summary will appear. We check what we want to do and click on «Next». If a window appears to authenticate, you just have to accept it; no need to put any password.
- We wait for the installation to finish. You have to be attentive until you see the message that the installation has been successful (left), and this will appear in the same terminal in which we see the changes made. Clicking on “Next” will see a window that offers us to reboot (right), and we can do it from here. The only important thing is that the next time it starts from the hard drive.
Advantages of blendOS V3
The main advantage of blendOS V3 over previous versions is that the updates are done in the background, so we'll always be up to date and never find out when improvements are coming.
If we compare it with other distributions, there are some advantages, such as the Linux Zen kernel, one modified by hackers to improve performance on desktop computers. But without a doubt the main advantage is the immutability. It is about the property of what cannot be changed, and who says to change says to break. For users who want to be able to use sudo rm -rf / (don't do it, it's the grossest and most dangerous example of what Linux allows), this isn't so good, since you have less leeway, but for those who prefer something they can just use and avoid problems, it's there. good.
Not being able to make changes to the operating system doesn't mean it can't be customized or install new packages. It means that its nature cannot be modified, nothing more.
Then there is another advantage, which will attract more attention to many and they will put it as a priority, but I think it is behind the previous one because in Linux, if you know it, everything is possible. It is about the possibility of power install operating systems in containers, which allows you to install applications from Ubuntu/Debian, Arch, Fedora...
Alternatives to BlendOS V3
If what we are looking for are alternatives that offer to install operating systems in containers, there are none. If what we have in mind is immutability, there are several options, among which I would highlight Fedora Silverblue. Other immutable alternatives:
Interested users can now download blendOS v3 from this link, where there is also an installation guide.