introduction

Welcome to TunaOS — a curated collection of Cloud-Native Enterprise Linux OS Images built on modern container technology.

What is TunaOS?

TunaOS produces bootc-based desktop operating system images for Enterprise Linux platforms. Each image is an OCI container that can be:

• Booted directly via bootc on bare metal or VMs
• Converted to an ISO for traditional installation
• Converted to a disk image (QCOW2, raw) for VM usage
• Switched to in-place on an existing bootc system

The goal: bring a modern desktop experience to Enterprise Linux — stable, immutable, and up-to-date.

Architecture

TunaOS images are built in layers:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         DE Stage (GNOME/KDE/…)       │  ← Desktop packages + theming
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│       Base Stage (no-DE common)      │  ← System packages, services, brew
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│    Enterprise Linux Base (bootc)     │  ← AlmaLinux / CentOS Stream / Fedora / RHEL
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Optional hardware layers sit between base and DE:

DE Stage
  ↑
Base-{hwe|nvidia} Stage   ← HWE kernel or NVIDIA drivers
  ↑
Enterprise Linux Base

Key technologies:

Component	Purpose
bootc	Bootable OCI containers — replaces traditional package-based OS
Podman	BuildKit-compatible container build engine
Flathub	Preconfigured Flatpak remote for desktop apps
Homebrew	CLI package manager baked into every image
tacklebox	ISO and disk image generation from bootc containers

Supported Variants

Variant	Base OS	Status	Platforms
Yellowfin	AlmaLinux Kitten 10	Stable	x86_64, x86_64/v2, ARM64
Albacore	AlmaLinux 10	Stable	x86_64, x86_64/v2, ARM64
Skipjack	CentOS Stream 10	Beta	x86_64, ARM64
Bonito	Fedora 44	Development	x86_64, ARM64
Redfin	RHEL 10	Local-build only	x86_64, ARM64

Choosing a Variant

• Yellowfin — best for most users. Tracks upstream CentOS Stream closely with AlmaLinux stability. Latest GNOME backports.
• Albacore — best for enterprise deployments. Fully RHEL-compatible, slower package cadence, maximum stability.
• Skipjack — for CentOS Stream purists. Upstream of RHEL; packages may be slightly newer than Albacore.
• Bonito — for Fedora users who want cutting-edge packages. Still in active development.
• Redfin — RHEL 10 with subscription. Local-build only; for environments requiring official Red Hat support.

For hardware variants:

• Standard — works on most hardware with the default EL kernel.
• HWE (-hwe) — for recent hardware (post-2023) needing a newer kernel.
• nvidia (-nvidia) — for systems with NVIDIA GPUs; includes drivers and CUDA.
• nvidia+HWE (-nvidia-hwe) — NVIDIA on the HWE kernel; for very recent NVIDIA hardware.

Desktop Environments

Tag	Desktop
gnome	GNOME (stable)
kde	KDE Plasma
cosmic	COSMIC Desktop
niri	Niri (tiling Wayland compositor)

Hardware Variants

Suffix	Description
(none)	Standard kernel
-hwe	Hardware Enablement — newer kernel for recent hardware
-nvidia	NVIDIA drivers + CUDA for graphics/AI workloads
-nvidia-hwe	NVIDIA + CUDA on HWE kernel

Example tags: yellowfin:gnome, albacore:kde-nvidia, skipjack:niri-hwe

Immutable Design

TunaOS images are immutable at runtime. The root filesystem is read-only; changes are applied via layering:

• System packages: Added at build time via dnf in Containerfile stages
• Desktop apps: Installed at runtime via Flatpak (Flathub)
• CLI tools: Installed at runtime via Homebrew (/var/home/linuxbrew)
• Configuration: Overlay files in /etc via system_files/

This design provides:

• Atomic updates: bootc upgrade applies a new image as a single transaction
• Rollback: bootc rollback reverts to the previous deployment
• Reproducibility: Images are built from Containerfiles tracked in git

Comparison

	TunaOS	Traditional EL	Fedora Silverblue
Base	AlmaLinux/CentOS/Fedora/RHEL	RHEL/AlmaLinux	Fedora
Desktop	GNOME/KDE/COSMIC/Niri	GNOME (stock)	GNOME
Updates	OCI image-based (atomic)	DNF (package-by-package)	rpm-ostree (layered)
Rollback	bootc rollback	No native rollback	rpm-ostree rollback
Immutable	Yes	No	Yes
Container-native	Yes (OCI images as OS)	No	Partial

Getting Started

1. Install from ISO — download a pre-built ISO and install
2. Build your own — build images locally with just and podman
3. Switch an existing system — bootc switch from another bootc-based OS