silverblue

Silverblue, or Fedora Silverblue, is an immutable desktop operating system developed by the Fedora Project. It is designed around an image-based, ostree-backed system that emphasizes stability and container-centric workflows. Silverblue ships with the GNOME desktop environment and uses the Fedora repositories, but the base OS is intentionally read-only, with updates delivered as atomic deployments.

The architecture centers on rpm-ostree and OSTree. Each update or change creates a new deployment, and a reboot can roll back to a previous state if needed. Because the base system is immutable, users generally install applications as Flatpaks or run them inside development containers, rather than layering packages into the base image. Layered rpm-ostree installs are possible but discouraged for routine use to preserve immutability.

For applications and development, Flatpak provides most desktop software, while Toolbox offers mutable, container-based development environments. Toolbox lets developers work inside isolated environments without altering the core system, aligning with Silverblue’s emphasis on reproducible workspaces and stability.

Silverblue is a Fedora edition intended for workstation use and is part of the Fedora family. It is aimed at reliability through a stable base, atomic updates, and easy rollback. The project supports container-centric workflows, making it popular for developers and teams seeking a reproducible, immutable desktop platform aligned with modern container tooling and practices.