I scratched the surface of immutable and this further dissects it into deeper ācategoriesā.
Yup. For your information, āimmutableā distros have only gained popularity relatively recently. In fact, for a long time, it was pretty obscure.
In 2003 we had the initial release of our first āimmutableā distro; NixOS. Then, inspired by it, Guix System was released in 2012. After which, within a couple of years, the distros with connections to enterprise Linux got their first āimmutableā distros:
Fedora in 2014 with Fedora Atomic Host (later CoreOS)
Ubuntu in 2016 with Ubuntu Core
openSUSE in 2017 with openSUSE MicroOS
However, these three were primarily meant for server and/or IoT. Then, in 2018, Fedora released Fedora Atomic Workstation (which later changed its name to Fedora Silverblue). Iād argue we owe the current renaissance of āimmutableā distros to it. And then, inspired by Fedora Silverblue, weāve had the release of dozens of 'immutableā distros in the last 2/3 years (including openSUSE MicroOS Desktop (later openSUSE Aeon) in 2021). Ubuntu has yet to release their Ubuntu Core Desktop. Though, itās in active development.
However, even if weād limit ourselves to the earlier mentioned āimmutableā distros (i.e. Fedora Atomic, Guix System, NixOS, openSUSE MicroOS and Ubuntu Core), we find that theyāre very different to one another. Heck, by comparison, e.g. Arch, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu arenāt actually that different to each other.
Though, perhaps curiously, we find that at least 80% of the user base of āimmutableā distros are using either Fedora Atomic (and/)or NixOS.
My first thought is that, if I didnāt know about immutable distros in the first place (aside from the meaning of the term), I probably wouldnāt know what Iām missing or gaining.
Exactly.
My uses for Linux will grow across 3 categories.
Business and office work. Mainly spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and virtual meetings
3D Design, 3D Printing, bitmap and vector graphics editing, coding, and retro video game development
Streaming via OBS, ATEM, webcam, HDMI capture, and various USB inputs and devices.
As far as I can tell, none of these should necessarily bring up problems or troubles on āimmutableā distros.
To give an example of something thatās not or less supported on āimmutableā distros: Unified Kernel Image with Secure Boot.
AFAIK, openSUSE Aeon can do it currently. But IIRC, thereās no documentation. NixOS can actually do it as well and thereās plenty of documentation on it. Fedora Atomic canāt yet, but thereās active development surrounding it. However, I donāt expect this feature on the smaller āimmutableā distros. Hence, for them, Iād regard this as absolutely impossible.
I have tried building machines on non-tablets and have got 80% of the way there with all 3. The tablet has me 100% with 1 & 2.
Iām glad to hear that!
This all gives me a greater understanding that helps me avoid and research more into the options based on needs.
Great! FWIW, if thereās anything to take from this interaction, then itās definitely this.