Recently, a new Linux distribution caught my attention, and I’ll admit the main reason was its bold choice of desktop environment. It’s one of the first distros built entirely around the new COSMIC desktop. I’m talking about Origami Linux.
Before going any further, though, an important clarification is needed: this is a young project and still very much experimental. As a result, not everything is guaranteed to work perfectly just yet. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you can expect from this new kid on the block.
The distro is yet another attempt at immutability, built on Fedora Atomic, using rpm-ostree for system management. The project adopts an image-based design in which the base system is read-only and updated atomically. In other words, instead of modifying system files in place, updates create new system deployments that are applied on reboot, while previous deployments are preserved and can be selected for rollback.
As for the desktop environment, you get the COSMIC desktop, which is nicely integrated overall. I especially liked that after updating, you’re automatically on the latest available version at the moment, COSMIC 1.0.4.
Still, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with the software selection. I don’t quite understand why Zen was chosen as the default browser, given that it’s still under development and currently in beta.
At the same time, Origami ships with almost no additional preinstalled software, the only exception being the Cloudflare Zero Trust application. Why this particular app was included is honestly beyond me.
As you’d expect in an immutable system, client applications are provided as Flatpaks. For system-level tools, Origami Linux ships with Distrobox preinstalled, allowing you to run them inside containers.
The distro also includes automatic background updates driven by a systemd user timer, alongside manual update options for the system image, Flatpak applications, and Distrobox containers, all managed via a convenience update command based on Topgrade, a unified system update tool that ties these update paths together.
Updating the entire system in Origami Linux can be done with a single command.
From what I’ve said so far, it should be pretty clear that Origami is aimed primarily at developers liking container-centric workflows rather than at everyday desktop Linux users. I won’t hide the fact that immutability in general (and rpm-ostree in particular) isn’t really my favorite thing, but that’s just my personal take.
That said, if you like the idea of an immutable desktop and enjoy tinkering with container tools like Distrobox, you’ll probably feel right at home with Origami Linux. However, the only reason I can see for using it over Fedora Silverblue is that Origami ships with a well-configured, ready-to-use COSMIC Desktop out of the box, rather than GNOME.
Finally, the distro offers multiple variants that can be switched using rpm-ostree rebase, including standard and NVIDIA images, a performance-oriented Cachy kernel variant, and separate test images for early access to new features. Rollback, deployment pinning, and cleanup tooling are documented as core maintenance workflows.
To learn more about Origami Linux, see the distro’s Wiki.
