r/linux • u/notepadbruh • 5d ago

Development CutefishOS is back!!!

Recently on GitHub the original author of Cutefish (reionwong) started committing on GitHub and the original website was remade. It's still based off Debian, this time Trixie (13) and the nightly it's already up to be downloaded here. What's your opinion?

12 Upvotes

59% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

7

u/StingMeleoron 5d ago

This is an interesting Linux distro with a clear vision, and one of the only that disputes the same space as elementaryOS. It is not my cup of tea (I'm daily driving Fedora Atomic now), but I like that it exists and I appreciate it for what it is: a(nother) nice and beautiful alternative that is free and open source for anyone to contribute to.

Thank you for sharing, OP. Just sharing my 2c because some of the comments here gave me the ick. Linux subreddit used to be better.

1

u/notepadbruh 4d ago

really, anyways np!!

-10

u/Dr_Hexagon 5d ago

what vision? copy macOS gui?

This should be an desktop like KDE, not its own distro.

5

u/Chromiell 4d ago

Dude, even KDE has/had KDE Neon, same with Gnome. Both have their own distro that they use to test the desktop integration. Even Cosmic has its own official distro in PopOS.

And what is the problem with copying MacOS? Even Gnome has some similar workflows to MacOS, if there's something that Apple does well is design so I don't see what would be the problem here.

0

u/Dr_Hexagon 4d ago

Fine , yet another "distro" that a tiny percentage of linux users will use.

If they focused on making the CuteFish DE work on the big four, Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora / Arch, they'd have a lot more adoption.

3

u/Chromiell 4d ago

Hmm I disagree... It comes pretty much for free: they use Debian Stable as a base and on top of that they ship Cutefish. It's not like they're reimplementing the whole release cycle like Ubuntu does.

They'd need to do it regardless since many dependencies their desktop relies on are probably going to be outdated, plus they're able to use it as a testing environment that they have direct control over. Handling their own subset of packages feels like a smart choice.

Those distros are not really meant to be used by anyone other than the developers and people who are interested in the project and want to contribute with tests and development feedback. Nobody uses the Gnome distro (I can't even remember the name) and nobody should really use KDE Neon.

5

u/StingMeleoron 4d ago

If it isn't your cup of tea, but it brings others to Linux who like their GUI, then what is the big deal? Why not make a distro that brings it nicely together out of the box for non tech experts? Let go of your tunnel vision and opinionated thoughts and try to see the bigger picture here. Geez.

Sorry if this comes up a bit harsh, but I've been facing this kind of thought for more than a decade and it gets tiring.

0

u/Dr_Hexagon 4d ago

Every DE wanting to have its own distro just contributes more to Linux fragmentation. I don't see the point of it. You want to make your own DE? good, now target it initially to one of the big four. Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora / Arch. Then others can help it support all the distros.

2

u/StingMeleoron 4d ago

There is no such thing as "linux fragmentation". Linux is the kernel, and the diffusion of the Linux kernel is stronger BECAUSE of the freedom of choice it allows being free and open source. That's how many famous distros came to be (Ubuntu for instance, or Linux Mint).

Plus, there is no such thing as "targeting a distro" when it comes to a DE - unless your DE is the distro itself. Which is precisely elementaryOS and CutefishOS.

18

u/sue_dee 5d ago

Shoot, I thought that read "Cuttlefish". I like it better that way.

4

u/jurimasa 5d ago

Meh.

3

u/notepadbruh 5d ago

why's that?

8

u/mrtruthiness 4d ago edited 4d ago

I would rather they packaged their DE for other distros instead of creating their own OS (derived from Debian) and packaging their DE just for that (only Arch has the DE-only ... and I'm not sure if it is the new version et).

In the end:

  1. I don't trust their packaging and continuity.

  2. They don't provide any information regarding security, upgrading, or other normal maintenance of the full OS. It appears there is none ... all they do is create new ISOs (no upgrade path).

  3. It's even more vibe-coded that the previous. As we know, vibe-coded code quickly becomes impossible to maintain ... so it's likely to be abandoned again. Aside: I can't even tell whether it's Qt5 or Qt6 based.

Aside: People shouldn't confuse this with "CutefishOS Reborn" ... which is a "community maintained fork" of the original. The "CutefishOS Reborn" website is covered in ads for browser extensions. That does not help on the "trust" part.

1

u/dalon2883 3d ago

It’s not Qt nor GTK. It’s something new: https://github.com/cutefishos/cutefish-toolkit

And what do you mean by no upgrade path? It’s just normal Debian with the Cutefish desktop installed. You can update it like any other Debian.

0

u/mrtruthiness 3d ago

It’s just normal Debian with the Cutefish desktop installed. You can update it like any other Debian.

That's not made clear. Where does it say that???

They only provide the ISO and many of these sorts of distros simply expect the upgrade to be a reinstall. e.g. There are plenty of Debian derived OS's that aren't linked to Debian repos.

I can't even seem to find a repo for CutefishOS for them to update their own packages??? It used to be http://packages.cutefishos.com/ but that is unresponsive. It seems all very fly-by-night and not trustworthy.

I'm pretty sure a dist-upgrade would break things.

It’s not Qt nor GTK. It’s something new: https://github.com/cutefishos/cutefish-toolkit

Interesting. It used to be Qt5.

6

u/dalon2883 5d ago

I tried it and it's surprisingly good if you like macOS. Will be my new main DE if they don't abandon it again.

5

u/tomauswustrow 5d ago

I'll try

4

u/lproven 2d ago

Built for agents

I'm out.

7

u/dalon2883 5d ago

lol why does this get so much hate here? It's genuinely good

9

u/OhlookitsGustavoM 5d ago

Because apparently the current rationale revolves into "Thing I don't like = AI slop.".

3

u/dalon2883 4d ago

I think they don’t even know if they would like it because they didn’t try it. They're stuck in 2025 und just see AI = slop.

2

u/Dr_Hexagon 3d ago

Because instead of packaging the DE for popular distros they ship it with their own modified debian. Meaning no community to support it and no guarentee of updates.

It just doesn't make sense for this to be a distro. Package the DE for Debian / Ubuntu / Fedora / Arch so people know they will have an actual supported system.

2

u/dalon2883 3d ago

They do package it for Debian. You can just use their APT repository instead of their iso. I’m sure packaging for other distros will come if it gets more popular.

1

u/robprobasco 3d ago

Most minor distros are just a forked modified de. You’re essentially saying ‘only ever use a popular distro.” That’s not very Linux of you.

1

u/Dr_Hexagon 3d ago

You’re essentially saying ‘only ever use a popular distro.”

No, I'm saying package your DE for the popular distros if you want people to use it.

Most minor distros are just a forked modified de.

In which case I wouldn't even call that a distro, its a "spin" on a distro.

0

u/LogSpecialist24 5d ago

I wish every desktop developer just stopped with the custom distro thing and instead focused on making sure its packaged everywhere.
Someone will eventually start making the distro anyways.

GNOME and KDE are able to do it because they are big and established projects
COSMIC is able to do it because its a corporate project with money behind it.

-6

u/abotelho-cbn 5d ago

Why should anyone care about this?

10

u/TheOgGhadTurner 5d ago

Nobody is forcing you to. Don’t be a dick

-6

u/noobjaish 5d ago

Redditors think the world revovles around them

-4

u/Dr_Hexagon 5d ago

So yet another attempt to copy the macOS GUI?

Why is this an OS? Shouldn't it just be a desktop that can run on any distro?

-18

u/1neStat3 5d ago

A KDE bloated crapware. No thanks.

0

u/[deleted] 5d ago

-8

u/dalon2883 5d ago

That "AI slop" is somehow already cleaner and more polished looking than any other DE and also very snappy.