After nine months of development, the Bluefin team has officially released Bluefin LTS and Bluefin GDX. However, since the name may not be particularly familiar to the average Linux user, let me first introduce it.
The distro started as a derivative of Fedora Silverblue, carrying over its immutable, image-based approach while adding its own tooling for things like Flathub, Homebrew, and ZFS. The mainline Bluefin and its GTS variant still follow that Silverblue model, aiming at a faster, rolling-style desktop.
With the release of Bluefin LTS, though, the project has shifted to a new foundation: CentOS Stream 10 combined with EPEL. That change means Bluefin LTS isn’t just a Fedora transplant anymore. Still, a purpose-built CentOS-based immutable desktop, updated atomically with bootc and designed for users who want a slower, more predictable release cadence lasting three to five years.
In practice, this split for Bluefin Linux results in the following flavors:
- Bluefin (mainline): Immutable desktop built on Fedora Silverblue, updated atomically with bootc.
- Bluefin GTS: Same as above, but tuned for stability and developer workflows, still Silverblue-based and immutable.
- Bluefin LTS: Immutable as well, but based on CentOS Stream 10 instead of Fedora, with a 3–5 year support cycle.
- Bluefin GDX: Built on top of Bluefin LTS, also immutable, but preloaded with Nvidia CUDA, drivers, and AI tooling.
So, now that we’ve clarified that, let’s get back to the main topic—the new LTS and GDX releases. As I said, Bluefin LTS is built on CentOS Stream 10 and pulls in extra packages from EPEL, but otherwise shares the same source RPMs as Bluefin and Bluefin GTS.
At its core, this LTS release follows the immutable, image-based model similar to Fedora Silverblue and openSUSE MicroOS. Updates are applied atomically using bootc, a tool for managing bootable container images; however, local package layering is not supported. Instead, applications are expected to come through Flathub, Homebrew, or other containerized methods.
The release includes a backported GNOME 48, something the developers say was a key part of making an LTS release feel current. Bluefin LTS also comes with secure boot support, ZFS integration, and an updated installation experience via the new Anaconda web-based installer, which replaces the older setup tools.
Plus, the GNOME desktop environment ships with a handful of popular extensions preinstalled by default, like Dash to Dock, AppIndicator, Blur My Shell, Caffeine, etc.
It’s important to note that there are two installation tracks: the standard LTS release, which ships with Linux kernel 6.12 for the lifetime of the distro, and an optional LTS-HWE branch, currently at kernel 6.15, that provides better support for newer hardware like the Framework 12 and Framework Desktop.
Switching between these branches can be done after installation with ujust rebase-helper. Both x86_64 and ARM64 images are available.
However, not every piece is in place yet. The curated Bazaar (a new Flatpak app store made especially for GNOME) configuration is currently missing. Additionally, gnome-user-share isn’t included, and the HWE branch doesn’t support secure boot at launch. These gaps are flagged as errata, with fixes expected later.
Alongside the LTS release, the team also introduced Bluefin GDX, a variant designed for AI and machine learning workloads. It ships with Nvidia drivers, CUDA support, VSCode integration, and Ramalama for local model management.
The idea is to provide a single CUDA-ready image rather than maintaining multiple developer-oriented builds. Updates from GDX are expected to flow back into Bluefin’s developer mode, keeping both aligned.
Lastly, the GDX release also comes with a community partnership involving the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Command Line Assistant team, aimed at improving upstream AI and ML tools. With secure boot enabled and GPU acceleration available out of the box, the GDX edition positions itself as an all-in-one open source AI workstation.
For more information, see the announcement. Images are provided for x86_64 (AMD/Intel) and ARM (aarch64), with both standard and HWE builds of Bluefin LTS, plus GDX editions with Nvidia support.
