I’ve heard of immutable OS’s like Fedora Silverblue. As far as I understand it, this means that “system files” are read-only, and that this is more secure.

What I struggle to understand is, what does that mean in practical terms? How does installing packages or configuring software work, if system files can’t be changed?

Another thing I don’t really understand is what the benefits as an end user? What kinds of things can I do (or can be done by malware or someone else) to my Arch system that couldn’t be done on an immutable system? I get that there’s a security benefit just in that malware can’t change system files – but that is achieved by proper permission management on traditional systems too.

And I understand the benefit of something declarative like NixOS or Guix, which are also immutable. But a lot of OS’s seem to be immutable but not purely declarative. I’m struggling to understand why that’s useful.

  • DrNeurohax
    7•2 years ago

    I’m generally a Windows user, but on the verge of doing a trial run of Fedora Silverblue (just need to find the time). It sounds like a great solution to my… complicated… history with Linux.

    I’ve installed Linux dozens of times going back to the 90s (LinuxPPC anyone? Yellow Dog?), and I keep going back to Windows because I tweak everything until it breaks. Then I have no idea how I got to that point, but no time to troubleshoot. Easily being able to get back to a stable system that isn’t a fresh install sounds great.

    • tikitaki
      5•2 years ago

      I’ve been using the same distro for at least 4 years now and I haven’t ever had any issues. Fedora on a desktop at home. It’s very stable. You don’t even need to know too much… although obviously knowing your way around the terminal and knowing some basic things about Linux helps

      • @[email protected]
        4•2 years ago

        You don’t understand what it’s like for people who love to fiddle with settings and options without knowing what they do

    • @D_Air1
      2•2 years ago

      Sounds like you just need a system with snapshots. Wouldn’t an immutable system hinder your tinkering? Sorry if I am misunderstanding, but your post didn’t sound like you planned to stop tinkering.