Re: [atomic-devel] Anyone working on using ProjectAtomic for the desktop?

["M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb znmeb net>]

"If you build it, I will come" ;-)

Seriously, though, here's what I'm doing:

I have a Fedora remix intended for digital journalists. The repo is
here: https://bitbucket.org/znmeb/osjourno. Right now, the Fedora 21
and Fedora 22 workstation versions work, but there's no user-friendly
solution for Windows. The alternatives all suck:

1. Native ports of the major tools - this works, but it takes *hours*
to install and there are *dozens* of stop points where the user has to
approve a default setting or decide how to over-ride it. I used to
ship this but withdrew it after wasting an afternoon clicking all
those "OK" buttons.
2. Windows Client Hyper V (Windows 8 and later) running a Fedora
Workstation virtual machine. This is a pain in the ass to set up and
doesn't work for earlier Windows versions.
3. VirtualBox - this works for earlier versions but it's slower than Hyper-V.
4. VMware Workstation - this costs significant dollars and their
support of Fedora guests (and hosts) is poor. Essentially you have to
track the *Arch* community for patches!
5. Boot2Docker and a Fedora Docker image: this is what I'm doing now.
See https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/znmeb/osjourno-rde/. Except for
the VirtualBox component this is the optimum.
6. Vagrant: the configuration file is *Ruby* code - if you don't know
Ruby you can't modify it.
7. Docker machine: this works with Client Hyper-V and is probably
where I'll end up. It's command-line only at the moment but a bit of
PowerShell code would make it as easy to use as a point-and-click.

So yes, I would use it and remix it. But I'm just one person and this
isn't a business - it's a "passion project". I think what you need to
do is be a "startup" - look for product-market fit with actual paying
customers with budgets and deadlines.

On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 3:38 PM, Adam Miller
<maxamillion fedoraproject org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>     This might be a wildly off in the weeds topic but I thought this
> was the best place to bring it up. I've recently been shooting the
> breeze with Jim Perrin of the CentOS project on IRC about the idea of
> running a desktop image from inside a docker container (it works, but
> getting it to work as non-root is still evading us, I'm sure we're
> missing something silly).
>     Those conversations kind of lead to the idea of running
> ProjectAtomic as a desktop/laptop OS such that the core system is
> managed in a stable and atomic fashion via rpm-ostree and applications
> run inside of containers (docker, rkt, systemd-nspawn/machinectl,
> $whatever) using 'atomic install' as the application lifecycle
> mechanism. I'm unsure if the concept of running the desktop in a
> container as a super privileged container is the best approach, but it
> is one idea. I mostly wanted to bring all this up and talk a little
> about the background just to see what others thought and if there's
> anything in this space that would offer a reasonably elegant solution
> to the question, "how do I run ProjectAtomic as my desktop/laptop OS?"
>
> Apologies in advance if I'm just spouting from crazy town and thanks
> for humoring me. :)
>
> -AdamM
>



-- 
OSJourno: Robust Power Tools for Digital Journalists
http://www.znmeb.mobi/stories/osjourno-robust-power-tools-for-digital-journalists

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