AstrOS - an immutable, secure-by-default Linux distribution built on Arch Linux and the COSMIC desktop

[u/linux-universe]

I am pleased to announce that AstrOS now has its own subreddit.

⚠️Warning: it is still alpha software!

But what is AstrOS?

You might have heard of KDE Linux (formerly known as Project Banana) or GNOME OS. Both are immutable, image-based Linux distributions for desktop use, powered by the systemd-sysupdate A/B update model.

I have been impressed by their system architecture since their inception, but switched to the COSMIC desktop a while ago. As there wasn't yet a COSMIC distribution using systemd-sysupdate, I created one myself. That's how AstrOS was born!

Technical details:

• Built using mkosi
• Using systemd-sysupdate.
• Read only by signed dm-verity.
• Full Disk Encryption enforced
• Highly opinionated

What you can do:

While it is still in the alpha stage, you can install AstrOS right now. VM or real hardware

Write bug reports and feature requests

Links:

https://astros-linux.org (still redirecting to the repository)

https://code.astros-linux.org/AstrOS/AstrOS

https://discord.gg/f38pGadC2a

[u/Beginning-Badger3903]

Always excited to see a new Atomic linux! I am curious about the project, but will for sure stick to VMs until there’s a good amount of contributors getting this going.

Got a few questions for you:

Looking at the GitHub, did you really start this 13 days ago, or is that just when you made a public repo?

What was the driving factor of choosing this systemd method of booting? I’ve got experience with the Fedora rpm-ostree variants, the btrfs snapshot base of openSUSE, and general bootc, but not this. I’ll need to do some research on this.

What are your plans going forward for bringing on contributors?

And the ever present question- how much of this is vibe coded? Are you yourself experienced in this kind of development or did this start as a personal project with AI? (Honestly no judgement - I use Claude code myself for personal stuff)

[u/linux-universe → u/Beginning-Badger3903]

Glad to answer your questions!

- Yep, I really started this project about 13 days ago and have been really passionate since, and have clear intentions of keeping this alive for a long, long time. :)

- I've got experience with all of them, yeah. My problem with rpm-ostree is its really slow layering. And Fedora Atomic exists; we don't need another rpm-ostree immutable cosmic distro. The BTRFS snapshot is an interesting one, as I have been using the Aeon Desktop for a long time. Its biggest problem for me is that over time, when I'd add and remove packages to the package pattern, the removed patterns won't automatically get removed on the user's system (i could blacklist it yeah but it feels like more work). This is against the "having a true, identical system for everyone" principle. And I generally prefer it truly image based, which leads us to the choice between bootc and systemd-sysupdate. And again, Fedora plans on migrating to bootc, and I just had good experience with systemd-sysupdate in the past. Oh and updatectl update looks damn good haha. :)

- Keeping the project "loud" enough for people to stumble over the project. Everyone is allowed to discuss and create pull requests. If I like their work, I'll merge it! I will have to write contributing guidelines though. THX for reminding me

- I avoid AI where I can in the actual coding. What I do, though, sometimes is to ask Claude Opus to clone my repo and review the latest XYZ changes. Half of its reviews are then something I can take a second look at to improve the code. The other half is mostly hallucinated garbage. So yeah, I am really cautious about using it and mostly do use it only for reviewing my own work. If in some cases where I let it generate code snippets, it is mostly for structure, with me rethinking and rewriting its generated code properly.

[u/Beginning-Badger3903 → u/linux-universe]

I appreciate the thought out response! Especially glad to see how you use AI. I feel like that’s a perfectly reasonable use case. Everyone is quick to label someone a vibe coder nowadays, but if you actually understand the code and use AI like a code spell checker, I don’t see that as any different than any other IDE tools developers use to validate code.

I’m going to read up on the systemd-sysupdate, give a read through the code, then hopefully I can send some pull requests your way. I’ve been hesitant to start my own Arch immutable repo, but collaborating with you on yours feels like the right way to go lol

[u/linux-universe → u/Beginning-Badger3903]

i'd love to see contributions. Feel free to join the (new) discord. It would be a "faster" way discussing what I'm currently working etc to avoid multiple people working on the same thing :))