The playbook converts a minimal Ubuntu 22.04 or AlmaLinux 9 installation into a simple, passwordless, Gnome-based desktop environment, with a few applications installed. It is ready for testing and feedback, but there is much work left to do, as can be seen from the TODO list below.
You may be a developer, or Linux sysadmin, but new to orchestration. As an extremely quick primer, think of orchestration as a way to create one stonking big configuration file, point it at a target and magically make that target into whatever your configuration file describes.
This is orchestration in a nutshell. We have a set of definitions and our orchestration framework applies those definitions to one or more targets, to make them conform. This project uses configuration management, a type of orchestration, to apply a configuration to one or more target computers.
One of the great beauties of orchestration is that it enables us to define our infrastructure (networks, servers, workstations, whatever) as code. And that's great because it means we can put the definitions into source control. Different people can work on different parts of the configuration. We can roll forwards and backwards through changes. We can have independent testing branches and so on.
There are many orchestration systems available, all with different strengths and specialties. You may have heard of Chef, Puppet, CFEngine, Terraform, Docker, Vagrant or any of the other mainstream orchestration tools.
This project uses Ansible. Ansible is great for controlling the configuration of servers and workstations. Compared to some of the other orchestration systems, it's relatively easy to learn. It has a low technical barrier to entry, too: all that's needed on the target machine is SSH and Python, rather than a dedicated agent.
Ansible is used in complex, multicomponent cloud-based systems. But this is a simple project, focused in most cases on configuring a single target computer. So it's not necessary to learn all of Ansible's capabilities, to contribute to this project.
Ansible is mature and well documented these days. The following resources should help anyone wishing to dive in:
Additionally, see how this project is structured. There are a few files in the
root, but most of the 'work' sits under the roles directory. Different
aspects of the BrightOS configuration are split up into separate
'roles'. So we have a role for installing and configuring the Gnome desktop, a
role that sets up the main user of the system, a role that configures the
system's name, and so on. (Some of these roles may change or be refactored as
the project matures.)
Anyone is welcome to fork the entire project and set off on their own. That's the beauty of open source - you can do what you like (except turn it into a commercial package). If you come up with something special, I hope you'll contribute that back to the original BrightOS project, but there's no obligation to do so.
To work on this project, get in touch with me (see the README), and I will set you up as a Github collaborator. All additions to the project should be developed on branches and submitted for approval as pull requests.
If you are working in Windows, please refer to the Windows development document.
I will be the first to admit I have virtually no graphics design skills and no marketing ability. Whatsoever. All contributions are very welcome - desktop backgrounds, project icons, web design, etc. Drop me a note (see the README for contact details) and we'll work from there.
Thanks for your interest in BrightOS!