The topic I moved my PC to an immutable distro, and the thing I was most afraid of turned out… is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
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When I was getting to grips with Linux after using Windows for decades, I learned about immutable distros. They looked interesting at first, but the more I looked at them, the less I understood why people even bothered. The downsides looked massive, and the upsides seemed minimal at best.
However, I kept hearing comments about it being the ‘future of Linux,’ so curiosity got the best of me. Fortunately, I was also in a distro-hopping mood, so I wiped my drive and installed Fedora Silverblue. And as it turns out, what I thought was the scariest part of an immutable distro became my favorite part.
If you’ve never heard of an immutable operating system before, they run a little different than a regular one. An immutable system blocks everything from making edits to system files, and yes, that ‘everything’ includes you. This means your system is protected from a few known issues by default due to its nature:
However, there is a huge downside; at least, I thought it was huge. Because you can’t edit system files, you can’t install apps the “normal way.” This means no running a command in your terminal to download something from a repository, or downloading an installer package. If you must install something, you can layer it into the OS, but it’s good practice to only do that for essential apps that you cannot otherwise set up. Why would anyone bother?
So it turns out that setting up an app on an immutable system is a lot easier than it sounds. Yes, you don’t have your usual avenues, but you do have Flatpaks. These run in a container, meaning you can go to Discover, download the apps you need, and run them without needing to do any layering.
However, not every app has a Flatpak, and I quickly exhausted that source with a few apps left over that I needed to install. Fortunately, after some research, I came across AppImages, which are little self-contained apps that share some semblance to portable apps on Windows. Then, after even more research, I found Gear Lever, a Flatpak app that lets you ‘install’ AppImages by moving them to a safe space, grabbing their icon, and setting them up with your PC’s desktop environment. It made using AppImages a real pleasure.
So, what did all that finagling get me? Well, one of the most stable OSes I’ve ever used. See, immutable operating systems are usually atomic, too. It’s not a necessity for them to be atomic, but they work so well together that you usually see the two in tandem. Atomic update systems don’t touch the system files during an update; instead, they make a new snapshot and swap to it on your next reboot, which works nicely with the immutable system design.
Different atomic systems will keep different numbers of past images, but even if yours only stores one previous image, it makes for a nice fallback if an update messes things up. You get all the benefits of having pristine system files that don’t “corrode” over time, and you get a solid updating system that has rollbacks built into it.
The short-term issues with immutable distros are that you have to learn how to get set up without console commands or install packages, but the long-term benefits are great. Once you get into the rhythm of using Flatpaks, AppImages, and the occasional layering, you reap all the benefits with zero downside.
Despite their streamlined features, minimalist Linux flavors have some red flags
So, do I recommend that absolutely every Linux user swap to an immutable one? Well, as much as I love them, I can’t say they’re for everyone. It comes down to how much you value the ability to dig into your system’s files and tweak things to your liking. I’m happy with giving up that freedom because every time I touch something critical, things go terribly wrong.
However, if you’re someone who loves digging through your system to see how everything ticks, you may get frustrated with an immutable distro. The very point of them is that nothing gets access to the system files, so it’s not worth fighting that mantra. On the plus side, if you want a reliable system where you won’t be digging through its guts so often (say, a workstation), an immutable one will give you that.
The best update strategy I’ve found is just being allowed to undo it
Losing the ability to edit system files sounded like a dealbreaker on paper, but once I learned the ropes, I understood why people called it the future of Linux. Why not give one a go and see how they work for you?