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BlendOS is a new Linux distribution, with its first release on 26 January, 2023.
Conceived by young Indian Linux developer Rudra Saraswat, it is billed as “the only operating system you'll ever need. A seamless blend of all Linux distributions, Android apps and web apps.” That is an ambitious claim, but no one in the Linux world can accuse Saraswat of lacking ambition, despite being only 13 years old.
If Saraswat’s name seems familiar, that is because he is the motivating force behind a number of other Linux projects, including Ubuntu Unity, Ubuntu Web, and Unity X. I am not sure how he finds time to attend school!
Background
So what is blendOS and why is it different?
This new distribution starts with Arch Linux, a well-established Linux distribution, as its base. There are downloads for your choice of two popular Linux desktops, Gnome or KDE. It should also be possible to install other desktop environments as well.
The core of blendOS is “immutable”, meaning that it is protected against changes. This should make it unbreakable and resistant to corruption and malware. Of course, after installation, most users will want to change it, add applications, etc, and blendOS allows that, through an overlay system.
What sets blendOS apart from other immutable distributions, such as VanillaOS, is that users can install applications from the Arch repositories, but also from Fedora and Ubuntu. Eventually other repositories will be added, as well. There are also Android applications installed using Waydroid, and a collection of web applications, too. Even Flatpak is installed by default, allowing another source for applications. Multiple copies of the same applications from different sources can be installed, as each set of applications is isolated using a system of individual containers. Containers are easy to create from the blendOS Settings application, or automatically by just using the package manager for each one.
BlendOS has its own “blend” package manager, but other package managers can be used for each source and container. These include apt, dnf-3, pacman, and yay, all used in the same way as on their home distributions.
Because blendOS is based on Arch Linux, it uses systemd as its initialization system, and follows Arch’s rolling release model for updates.
Getting blendOS
Either of the two desktop versions of blendOS can be downloaded via HTTPS from the official website, with the ISO files actually linked from GitHub and hosted on SourceForge.
I downloaded the second release available, from 22 April, 2023, the blendOS 23.04 Gnome desktop version, and gave it a test run. The download size is 3.0 GB which is significantly smaller than Ubuntu 23.04’s 4.9 GB ISO file, with a similar Gnome desktop.
The download was via HTTPS as there are no BitTorrents available and also no checksums, such as SHA256 or even MD5 sums. This is a bit of an oversight, as it means that once you download the ISO there is no way to confirm that you have a good download. That kind of makes the “immutability” a bit moot. Hopefully future versions will have checksums available.
Installing
BlendOS is not officially supported by Ventoy, but Arch Linux is. Dropping the ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.0.91 worked just fine, and BlendOS booted up to a nice blue desktop. Ventoy makes testing out multiple Linux distributions fast and easy.
BlendOS can be tested in a live session and then installed using the custom blendOS installer, a derivative of Crystal Linux’s Jade installer. Crystal Linux is itself a derivative of Arch Linux, so it makes sense to use software from the same family.
System requirements
There are no stated minimum system requirements for blendOS, but I would suggest at least a dual-core processor, and 8 GB of RAM, as a reasonable starting point.
Trying out blendOS
When first booted up, you get a typical Gnome desktop, very clean and uncluttered. In fact, the installation is pretty close to pure, unmodified Gnome, with only application menu auto-grouping from the Gnome Dash Fix project added. So, if you like vanilla Gnome, you will love blendOS Gnome.
Applications are opened from the “Activities” menu or with the “Super” (Windows) key, which shows two workspaces, the search bar, and application favorites, on a stock horizontal dock. The rest of the applications installed are just one click away on the applications menu. The desktop itself has no dock or launcher, although this can be installed as part of Gnome Tweaks and its Dash to Dock extension, if desired.
Because this is pure Gnome, the application windows have no “maximize” or “minimize” buttons, just a “close” button. You can get “hide” and “maximize” from a right-click, though, for some reason this doesn’t work with Firefox, unlike the other application windows tested.
Settings
Like Ubuntu these days, BlendOS 23.04 Gnome gives a choice of just two window color themes, light and dark. The Quick Settings menu also allows selecting “night mode” which switches to the dark theme, and also, in most cases, a darker version of the wallpaper.
There are 13 wallpapers provided, all of which are basically abstract designs. Most are quite calm, like the default blue one, but a few are more cacophonic, which may appeal to some users.
Applications
Some of the applications included with blendOS 23.04 Gnome are: Archive Manager (file-roller) 43.0 archiver Cheese 43.0 webcam Document Viewer (evince) 43.1 PDF viewer Files (nautilus) 43.3 file manager Firefox 112.0.1 web browser Gnome Calculator 43.0.1 calculator Gnome Console 44.0 terminal emulator Gnome Music 42.1 music player Gnome Photos 44.0 photo manager Gnome Software 43.5+ package manager Gnome Text Editor 43.2 text editor Gnome Videos (totem) 43.0 video player Gnome Web (epiphany) 43.1 web browser Gparted 1.5.0 partition editor Image Viewer (Eye of Gnome) 44.0 image viewer Systemd 253.3 init system Waydroid 1.4.0 Android application installer
This list of applications included is fairly minimal and obviously lacking such things as an office suite, email client, or image editor. Personally, I like the approach of providing only a few basic applications, and letting the user decide what they need to add. This not only makes the initial download smaller but also reduces the number of unneeded applications to be removed to reduce excess clutter.
As noted, applications can be installed from the Arch repositories and from Fedora and Ubuntu as well, plus others will be able to be user-added in the future. Waydroid allows installing Android applications. There is a web application store, but it has only a few web applications currently, such as Google Maps. Perhaps this will be expanded over time. These web applications leverage Gnome Web’s ability to create stand alone windows that have the same look and feel as local applications. Gnome Web has had this capability since September, 2011, though I am not aware that it has found wide acceptance among desktop users. Of course, these web applications are essentially just a bookmark for existing websites, so you can always just bring them up in a tab in Firefox from the internet.
Conclusions
Right out-of-the-box, blendOS 23.04 Gnome gives a nice pure Gnome desktop experience which will certainly please Gnome fans. What sets this distribution apart from others is its ability to install applications from multiple sources, using isolated containers to keep them apart. I think the degree of success that it will achieve will hang on whether it turns out that it is something that Linux desktop users have been yearning for or not. It seems to me that most existing distributions are not lacking access to a large number of applications in their native repositories, especially when you add in FlatPak, AppImage, Snaps and Personal Package Archives (PPAs).
BlendOS has a lot of promise; it will be interesting to see over time whether it truly fills an identified user need that has been lacking in the Linux world and takes off.
External links
Official website: https://blendos.co/