Generated via ublue’s countme script https://github.com/ublue-os/countme/blob/main/growth_global.svg
Here is Fedora’s upstream graph to compare:

This is a Linux distro focused on gaming.
In the future, please say what the project is for when you post about it.
I was also wondering what the fuck this is. From the Wikipedia introductory paragraph:
Bazzite is a Fedora-based[1] Linux distribution designed to be similar to Valve’s SteamOS 3 while still functioning as a normal computer.[2][3][4] It offers support for handheld PC devices, including the Steam Deck.
while still functioning as a normal computer
Reminds me of when a school instructor walked by and looked at my laptop and he’s like “whoa what is that” (I had Firefox running) and I said it was Linux and he was like “whoa I didn’t know Linux could do that”
???
In this case they are clarifying that it isn’t just a handheld device OS, it is a full desktop OS.
Maybe they’d only ever used it headless?
I thought it was just my YouTube algorithm showing me install bazzite. Hehe guess there was a trend
I think its hitting a critical mass, that much upward growth is very encouraging to see. I was able to convince a handful of friends to switch to linux due to windows getting so bad, they liked the extremely simple approach Bazzite has. I think its better than Mint in this regard, Fedora has come such a long way.
What is bazzite doing differently compared to mint?
It’s image based, so it’s very hard for a beginner to fuck it up, and if they do its one or two lines of commands to fix 99% of the time.
eg rpm-ostree rebase or rpm-ostree reset
The immutability is the main difference. If something gets messed up, on boot you simply change to the previous image and you’re back up and running again.
I keep seeing people saying this but realistically how many new users had to do that? IMO, it’s just the fact that Bazzite has pretty much everything you need out of the box.
Eh, on something as customizable as Linux where the solution to problems can often be “run this line in the terminal”, I do believe that a new user can mess up their configuration. I remember Linus from LTT having to deal with a few problems while doing the challenge.
It’s certainly also the fact that everything you need is already there out of the box, no need for tinkering to get the GPU drivers installed.
The two things are probably both true
so it maintains several editions at once? that sounds like a space hog even though it’s useful.
Two editions, the current one and previous one, I believe
And the space hog is like a few gigabytes. I think that’s well worth it for a beginner when it means that in the worst case you can always roll back when we have like terabytes of space
I so badly want to do the “old man yells at cloud” meme and be angry that Bazzite is so popular.
I want to do it, I’m resisting hnnnngg
Atomic bad because different and I don’t like things that are different. 🧓
It’s too bad that we’re holding a gun to your head to make you switch. 😔🔫
😱 😢
Bazzite is absolutely great, if you just want a very reliable system that just works and goes out of your way. I lean nowadays way more into recommending Bazzite to new Linux users, since there is literally not much to initially set up, no matter the hardware. Gaming works perfectly fine and any regular users software needs get easily satisfied by the Bazaar.
It might be beginner friendly, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do pretty much anything else you’d want to do on any other distro. It’s just a different process.
Agreed. I’m a software dev and I also have a ton of weird and niche hobbies I use my PC for and I’ve never run into anything I felt like Bazzite prevented me from doing. Even if they didn’t offer the super convenient developer edition.
For example, the immutable root partition doesn’t stop me from adding udev rules in
/etc.In fact, DistroBox gives me the freedom to use any package from any distro I want, including the Arch AUR.
Anyone who says Bazzite is “too limiting” doesn’t understand how it actually works.
I love distrobox.
I havent tried it but I cant see how it can be better than arch Linux with its AUR. Almost all software that exists is right there in its latest version.
Fedora feels a lot more limited. I think just because bazzite is novel, a lot of people are trying it now. I dont think the popularity will last. People will understand that they get many issues with it and go back to a normal Linux.
You have complete access to the AUR via Distrobox. Also, how do you conclude that it has “many issues”? I do get that Bazzite might not be for everyone, but please, elaborate.
Since its immutable, I imagine that a lot of apps may not “just work” and need special packaging or configuration. But I havent used it. What would you say? Apps just work or they need anything special? Will Flatpaks work?
Let’s see, Microsoft kills 10, which nobody really loved but they were willing to tolerate. Microsoft insists they move to 11, which is universally reviled.
Gamers predictably say “fuck this” and install the first gaming-oriented alternative to windows 11 they can find on Bing, and then this happens.
Has Microsoft realized the Intel-level deep shit they are in yet?
Microsoft doesn’t actually care because most of their revenue is from corporate environments tied to the OS and their cloud offerings. Everyday users are nothing to them, which is why they don’t try harder to keep you from using unactivated copies of windows. You are nothing
Right up until these new Linux users start demanding linux at work as well. And IT folk will be more then happy to supply them.
No I truly think Microsoft is slowly losing the OS market.
Let me put it this way: if you had to start fresh. New company. Would you default to using windows? The fact that many are hesitant after that question, shows you Microsoft is losing.
you’re overestimating the “IT folk”.
The IT folk doesn’t have any power in big companies. They get told what to install by higher management. And higher management usually knows fuckall about computers but does listen to consultants and fancy buzzwords which is something Microsoft is insanely good at.
Must be an American company? In the EU shops i visit, even citrix is Boeing replaced with web based linux environments.
For instance: https://lemmyverse.link/lemmy.ml/post/37846820
As an American, Americans are strangled by Microsoft.
Shilling works.
I read Brazzite as Brazzers 😅
Is bazzite better than Steam OS?
They are different. If I could run steamos I’d probably run that. But on my hardware Bazzite is the best of the compatible options.
For all intents and purposes it is Steam OS.
The amount of stuff i read about it ,i’d thought 30 Million! Lot of noise about it out there.
I too was surprise to read the actual number being so low considering how much it’s talked about. I never really saw the appeal as steam is pretty easy to get set up and running on any mainstream Linux distro with little fuss, but I recognize it was set up for newbies who want an gaming ready experience. It’s an interesting project regardless.
I’ve been on Linux for a bit. I was fedora for a long time and it’s totally fine but I tried out Bazzite for gaming and it’s been really good experience. I like tinkering but I never played as much game time because I was tinker with it. Now it mostly just work and that’s awesome.
There are a few things I don’t like about Bazzite, like ujust for example, but it’s still worth it to me.
If anyone likes Bazzite but doesn’t want the immutability, Garuda is also gamer focused and easy.
Garuda is great. I tried Bazzite on my nvidia based laptop and had problems getting it to work well (to be fair to Bazzite, this was well over a year ago when Bazzite was very new on the scene - I have no idea if i’d have the same problems today). Replaced it with Garuda (which I had been running on my desktop) and it literally “just worked”. And, frankly, I’m a linux idiot. I basically just read the messages that pop up occasionally and do my best to do things like they say (for example, I try to remember to run updates before the system has to tell me “hey, it’s been a bit. Would be best if you would update me soon”).
Speaking of being an idiot… I don’t even know if I HAVE to download the “dragonized” version to get all the gaming bells and whistles just as easily, or if I can use their KDE plasma version that doesn’t have all the theming and still get the “gaming” tweaks? Since my system works, I don’t want to install a new version just to find out, but I feel like I could convince other people to try it more if they got the same functional experience without all the purple glowing stuff out of the box.
I use the xfce version and it’s pretty bare bones. Other than a background image I replaced, it didn’t have any annoying UI stuff in it. It still runs all the gaming stuff just fine out of the box.
Question for all Bazzite/Aurora users: what do you use to make backups of your machine?
I’m using Pikabackup to make backups of
/home, but I’m not sure if there’s a better way?I’m using Fedora KDE and haven’t set up backups on my desktop PC yet, but on Linux servers (both at home and “in the cloud”) I usually use Borgbackup with Borgmatic. All my systems have two backup destinations: My home server and a storage VPS, both via SSH.
Looks like Pika Backup is a GUI for Borgbackup, so it should be a good choice. Vorta is also popular. GNOME apps tend to focus on simple, easy to use GUIs with minimal customization, so it’s possible Vorta is more configurable. I haven’t tried either.
Don’t forget the 3-2-1 policy: you should have at least three copies of your data, in at least two different mediums (hard drives, “cloud”, Blu-rays, tape, etc), one of which is off-site (cloud, a NAS at a friend’s or family member’s house, etc). If you’re looking for cloud storage, Hetzner storage boxes are great value. Some VPS providers have good sales (less than $3/TB/month) during Black Friday.
Pika should be fine, look into borg or just a simple Rsync setup if you want something a bit more detailed. But personally with backups I want it as simple and reliable as possible.
Okay, thanks!
Pika broke for me so many times I gave up on it. Vorta has been solid.
Did anything specific break?
I’ll look into vorta, thanks!
Syncthing to my server
I’ll check it out, thanks!
on my CachyOS/Arch and NixOS machines I just use borg to backup to my dedicated server. Very easy to do. I have a couple alias’ set up so I can view my backups easily through my file manager on whatever local machine. Essentially all you have to do is make a script to tell it what files/folders to backup, what to potentially ignore, how often you want to backup, the time of day you want it to happen, can also tell it to delete old backups. In NixOS it’s painfully easy to set up and can be done within the configuration.nix. On other distros the only difference is you have to set up a service and timer for it.
but I like it, it’s straight forward, never had issues with it.
On my NixOS and Arch machines I used ZFS snapshots for backups. That’s why I specifically asked for Aurora / Bazzite users.
I don’t currently backup /home.
You def don’t need to backup anything on the OS drive since rollbacks are built into the system and it initializes every time you boot.
Yeah, I don’t really need to backup the system, except for a list of installed software, but I guess that’s all included somewhere in
~/.localor whatever, since it’s flatpak homebrew and steam.
I started trying out Bazzite yesterday and it’s been great so far! HDR is not as simple to get working as their marketing would make you think, but once you know what to do it’s not so bad.
Al’s I’m having trouble getting OpenRGB working correctly.
But other than that it’s been pretty good. It’s harder to tweak than Ubuntu (what I was previously using) but works much much better out of the box.
If you’re on a Gigabyte mobo openRGB may not work at all.
Open RGB is a absolutely fucking shit show.
Then again RGB in windows is barely better then a fucking shit show.
RGB controls in general is just bad on everything.
Honestly.
On payday I’m running to the local electronics shop for a breadboard. I’ll make my own RGB controller. Fuck drivers.













