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# 15. Questions |
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**Where do I download Alloy?** |
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You do not. You build it. Alloy publishes source and never publishes a binary |
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image, so what you boot is the thing you configured on your own machine. See |
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chapter 2. |
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**Can I build it on a Mac or on Windows?** |
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No. The build needs Linux with podman, real disk, and a long wall clock. There |
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is no path to an Alloy ISO from either. |
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**How do I install software?** |
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Not with `dnf`. Chapter 7 is the whole answer: pick how much of your machine |
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the software should reach, and Alloy picks the mechanism from that. |
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**How do I update?** |
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Rebuild the image and `bootc switch` to it. Your home directory and your |
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layered packages survive; you never reinstall. Chapter 8. |
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**Does Alloy phone home?** |
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No. Nothing enrolls, checks, or reports without you asking. The update timer is |
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disabled on any machine installed from a locally built medium, Tailscale and |
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Syncthing are both off until you enroll them, and the browser makes no network |
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request on first launch. |
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**Is it Rust?** |
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The parts Alloy writes are. The parts it adopts are whatever they are: sway is |
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C, Tailscale and Syncthing are Go, CUPS is C. Where a competitive Rust option |
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exists it gets picked, and where one does not the gap is named rather than |
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papered over. |
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**Why sway and not Hyprland or niri?** |
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Alloy wants the i3 model: predictable, workspace-based, no scrolling columns |
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and no animation. sway is that model, mature, and well packaged, and the whole |
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sway ecosystem (lock, idle, bar, OSD) fits behind it with no glue. |
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**Why is there no settings app?** |
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There is: it is `alloy settings`, and it runs in a terminal. Every action it |
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takes prints the command it ran, so the console teaches the system instead of |
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hiding it. |
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**Can I use bash instead of nushell?** |
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Yes: `chsh -s /bin/bash`. bash is untouched at `/bin/sh` and `/bin/bash`, so |
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nothing else on the system changes either way. |
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**Can I use vim instead of helix?** |
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Yes, install it. helix is the default because it is useful with no |
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configuration, which is the same test that picked every other default here. If |
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you would rather assemble your editor from plugins, nothing stops you. |
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**Why does my emoji not render?** |
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No emoji font is shipped. Alloy uses none in its own interface, so it carries |
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none. Install any emoji font and it works immediately. |
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**Can I put GNOME or KDE on it?** |
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You can layer whatever you want, but at that point you are running Fedora with |
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extra steps. Alloy is the curation; removing it leaves the base. |
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**Is my data safe if I lose the machine?** |
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Only if you encrypted the disk at install (chapter 3). Alloy does not encrypt |
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by default and does not pretend to. |
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**What happens if the TPM fails on an encrypted machine?** |
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You type the passphrase you set, or the eight-word recovery phrase the |
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installer showed you. Both are enrolled precisely because a TPM-only setup has |
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one failure mode that ends in a lost disk. |
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**Is there a graphical file manager, launcher, or editor?** |
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No. yazi, `Mod+D`, and helix are the answers. If you want a graphical file |
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manager, chapter 7 explains how to add a catalog and install one. |
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**How stable is this?** |
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Pre-v0. The base underneath it is Fedora and is as stable as Fedora, but the |
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console, the installer and the image composition are young, and parts of the |
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system named in this manual are not built yet. Every one of those is called out |
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where it comes up rather than described in the future tense. |
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**Where is the rest of the documentation?** |
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`docs/` in the repository. `MANIFESTO.md` is what Alloy is and who it is for, |
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`STACK.md` is every pick with its reasoning and what was rejected, `CONSOLE.md` |
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is the console's design, `IMAGE.md` is how the image is composed, and |
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`CONTINUITY.md` is the sync and mesh story. They are written for people working |
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on Alloy, and they are the honest record of why each default is what it is. |
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