I use yadm’s post-checkout script feature to accomplish this on my machines.

I didn’t find any script that would install the apps you wanted, but I did find a script that will help you build your own (it’s pretty easy). You can take inspiration from this one and modify it, so that whenever you reinstall your system, you’ll run your script.

gist.github.com/…/ed53aa410a22620013e04baca437abb…

Research what commands are used in Fedora to install what application and add them to your script. Then, give your .sh file execute permissions and run it. You can do this in a virtual machine first if you want.

You could write yourself a bash script to do this.

Have you tried SaveDesktop? Thought It is limited in the flatpak softwares, but cloud synchronization feature is recently added.

Something like Ansible won’t help you the first time around, but it’ll make the next times easier.

I have a bash script I use to script my Silverblue install. Something like this should work.

# space-separated list of packages to install
S_RPM_PACKAGES_TO_INSTALL="pkg1 pkg2 pkg3"

# function to install the packages
dnf_install () {
	sudo dnf install -y $1
}

# call to function, passing the list
dnf_install "$S_RPM_PACKAGES_TO_INSTALL"

I have it set up this way so that I just have a bunch of bash variables describing the stuff I want to install all at the top of the file, but the function definitions and calls lower down since I don’t need to see them.

It also does other things like removes packages from the system, removes some preinstalled flatpaks, installs flatpaks from Fedora Flatpaks / Flathub / gnome-nightly, and sets up gnome through a list gsettings commands.

As I use my system, I add new apps to the list I want next time I install and remove apps I don’t use.

# Anydesk
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/anydesk.repo<<EOF
[anydesk]
name=AnyDesk Fedora Linux
baseurl=http://rpm.anydesk.com/fedora/x86_64/
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://keys.anydesk.com/repos/RPM-GPG-KEY
EOF

[anydesk]
name=AnyDesk Fedora Linux
baseurl=http://rpm.anydesk.com/fedora/x86_64/
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://keys.anydesk.com/repos/RPM-GPG-KEY
AnyDesk Fedora Linux                                                                                                                                                         397  B/s | 488  B     00:01    
AnyDesk Fedora Linux                                                                                                                                                         1.8 kB/s | 1.7 kB     00:00    
Importing GPG key 0xCDFFDE29:
 Userid     : "philandro Software GmbH <info@philandro.com>"
 Fingerprint: D563 11E5 FF3B 6F39 D5A1 6ABE 18DF 3741 CDFF DE29
 From       : https://keys.anydesk.com/repos/RPM-GPG-KEY
AnyDesk Fedora Linux                                                                                                                                                         796  B/s | 1.2 kB     00:01    
Error: 
 Problem: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides libgtkglext-x11-1_0-0 needed by anydesk-6.3.2-1.x86_64 from anydesk
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages)

I use an Ansible playbook to do fresh install stuff such as app installs & joining my local Samba AD.

Another option, that I’ve never tried, would be to put your /home directory on another partition. That only solves the settings though and not your app installation bit.

Using ansible will help you on your 2nd, 3rd , nth install.

But getting ansible to do what you want (plus testing) for the first time would takes 10x longer than manual install.

I think there’s xkcd about that.

---
- hosts: localhost
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install required software
      dnf:
        state: latest
        name:
          - firefox
          - telegram
          - calibre

  - name: Install flathub as remote
    ansible.builtin.shell:
      cmd: flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
    tags:
      - apps

  - name: Install flatpak apps
    community.general.flatpak:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      state: present
    loop: "{{ flatpaks }}"
    tags:
      - apps

  - name: Remove some default unused packages
    ansible.builtin.dnf:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      state: absent
      update_cache: no
    loop: "{{ remove }}"
    ignore_errors: true
    tags:
      - apps

  - name: Install our packages
    ansible.builtin.dnf:
      name: "{{ item }}"
      state: present
      update_cache: yes
    loop: "{{ rpms }}"
    ignore_errors: true
    tags:
      - apps```

On mobile. Apologies if formatting is off.

.

I do use docker, and compose a lot. But can it be used for desktop apps? Telegram, gimp, Thunderbird, etc?

I did more than 5 installs this weekend (for … reasons) and the “trick” IMHO is …

Do NOT install things ahead of actually needing them. (of course this assume things take minutes to install and thus you will have connectivity)

For me it meant Firefox was top of the list, VLC or Steam (thus NVIDIA driver) second, vim as I had to edit crontab, etc.

Quite a few are important to me but NOT urgent, e.g Cura (for 3D printer) and OpenSCAD (for parametric design) or Blender. So I didn’t event install them yet.

So IMHO as other suggested docker/docker-compose but only for backend.

Now… if you really want a reproducible desktop install : NixOS. You declare your setup rather than apt install -y and “hope” it will work out. Honestly I was tempted but as install a fresh Debian takes me 1h and I do it maybe once a year, at most, no need for me (yet).

Some distros allow this. Nix for example allows you to save config files that describe your entire system (apps, settings, etc) and then load them in one go. Other distros are following suit with their own tailored solutions too (I think Ubuntu might have something? Manjaro?).

Could you just build a base image and then deploy it?

Also Ansible is pretty solid

I wonder, is there a tool that lets me script installs?

I’ll want to check if application exists, and if so, update, otherwise, install. That kind of thing.

github.com/ivan-hc/AM

Use AppMan to install them in HOME.

That’s one of the things I miss the most in Gentoo, having the packages of your system defined in text files so a fresh install was just copying those files and running an update.

I’ve tried similar things with other distros, but it’s never the same, the list of packages ends up getting out of date or ends up with too much garbage.

Currently I have a home server so I took the time to get an Ansible playbook setup for running, maintaining, and maybe migrating the server if needed. Since some stuff is also run on other machines that I have (update system, update some docker images I run in multiple systems, etc) I did setup some minimal packages that I need on my main system, it’s easy enough but I wouldn’t recommend using Ansible just for this (but if you also have dotfiles it’s a great tool for automating lots of the initial setup).

All of that being said, the reason I never bothered with this until I had a home server is that usually there are years between system installs, so even if what you had was exactly what you wanted the last time you installed your system, it’s unlikely to be exactly what you want next time you do. Since the last time I installed my main system I switched from X to Wayland, from i3 to Hyprland and then Sway, etc, etc…

Nix and home-manager, those are the only 2 I have off the top of my head.