IronForge

IronForge is an end-game GNU/BSD/Linux OS for developer desktop and laptops.

IronForge is designed for users who have tried many other distributions and ended up landing one they intend to stick with – often because it provides full control, is minimalist, or goes hand in hand with the user's philosophy of computing. Effectively it means means IronForge aims to be the last Linux distro you will ever run. No more distro-hopping. Not because perhaps it has everything you need, but because it has nothing you don't want.

Release note

Note that this is not in even in alpha version yet, I expect this to be in an alpha release by Q2 2025. It has thus been delayed by 3 months.

IronForge has been my daily driver since September 2024 and since it just works that is upholding development of an installer. I have now decided that I will use it also on a GPU server and before I start that I will need to have a development system where I can develop the CUDA support and also make an installer. When the system has an installer I might release it into the public. I expect world wide there should be a market for 1-2 or maybe even 3 users beyond myself.

Principles

  • Simplicity
  • 64-bit only (no hybrid)
  • Single root user
  • No systemd
  • No X11
  • UEFI only
  • Prefer static over dynamic

Currently the system architecture is strictly x86_64 but that might change later if ARM64 becomes a thing on the desktop. Also, the system is compiled with -march=skylake so it won't work on a very old CPU. It will however work on a Thinkpad T460 so that should be good for most people, including myself. ;-)

Also not really Principles but design choices made so far:

  • Flatpak for GUI applications. Because life is too short to package GUI applications.

  • Pipewire for Sound instead of Pulse Audio.

Pipewire is still immature, but we require it in Wayland anyway for screensharing so it's either Pipewire + Pulse or only Pipewire for everything.

Debatable design choices (subject to change):

  • River window manager. Why not Sway or Hyprland?

Unique features

Besides all of the principles listed above IronForge comes with some cool features:

  • Immutable /usr not based on ostree.
  • Restart entire userspace without restarting kernel.
  • De-coupled kernel handling. Ironforge does not come with a precompiled kernel.

TODO

  • What is most important right now? Installer? Live USB?

Future

  • CUDA support
  • Vulkan support
  • Installer
  • Live USB
  • Server requirements
  • Self-hosted initrd
  • Make EFI shell optional
  • Phase out shared libraries or bring to a minimum
  • Remove /usr/lib64 and dependency on /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2