Creator Of Bottles, VanillaOS And Singularity Desktop | Mirko Brombin
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In this episode of Tech Over Tea, host Rudy Robertson welcomes back Mirko Brombin, the creator of Bottles and Vanilla OS, to discuss his latest project: Singularity Desktop—a new Wayland-only desktop environment built with GTK4 and Vala. Mirko explains that Singularity is both an experimental playground and a future production-ready OS, designed to offer deep customization without the constraints of GNOME's Libadwaita guidelines. He shares his motivations for avoiding Libadwaita, citing community toxicity and the desire for creative freedom, especially as GNOME moves toward a dedicated distribution. The project is being developed inside a DistroBox container for safety and flexibility, with early features including tiling, customizable window decorations, global menus, and extensive CSS theming support. Mirko emphasizes his commitment to maintaining Singularity as a solo project to preserve its vision, while still welcoming contributions. He aims to release a public alpha or beta by the end of 2026, with the code following shortly after.
Singularity Desktop is a Wayland-only, GTK4-based desktop environment built with Vala, designed for maximum customization and developer freedom.
Mirko avoids Libadwaita not due to technical limitations, but because of community toxicity and the desire to avoid being forced into GNOME's design dogma.
The project will be released in two branches: one experimental for innovation, and one stable for production use, with a planned 0.1 release by end of 2026.
Singularity will not be a fork of Vanilla OS but a distinct project with its own tools and architecture, including a new root system replacing AB Root.
Customization is central—users can theme the desktop via CSS, modify window decorations, and use global menus, with advanced settings accessible via Dconf.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Introducing Singularity: A New Vision for Desktop Freedom
“I don't want to see an OS for GNOME. I don't accept to see all the restrictions that Libadwaita is porting to the Linux ecosystem.”
Why GTK4 and Vala? Technical Choices and Philosophical Reasons
Mirko explains his technical stack—Vala for GTK4, avoiding Go due to unstable bindings, and rejecting Libadwaita for philosophical reasons, not technical ones.
The Problem with GNOME OS and the Rise of Singularity
“It's like you have to do everything the exact way GNOME wants which is not GNOME, it's the GNOME community wants.”
Development Approach: Containerized, Experimental, and Sustainable
Singularity is developed inside a DistroBox container to avoid system crashes, with a dual-branch model: one for experimentation, one for stability and production use.
Customization, Tiling, and UI Flexibility
“I want to provide a lot of customization but without making like KDE that you can open KDE settings and say okay. So where can I start?”
“I don't want to see an OS for GNOME. I don't accept to see all the restrictions that Libadwaita is porting to the Linux ecosystem.”
“It's like you have to do everything the exact way GNOME wants which is not GNOME, it's the GNOME community wants.”
“I'm not going to have a SingularityOS team. I want to keep that project with me as the only developer forever.”
Host
Guest
mirko brombin
person
singularity desktop
product
bottles
product
gnome
product
vanilla os
product
gtk4
product
libadwaita
product
wayland
product
vala
product
rudy robertson
person
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