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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Fedora Silverblue is the most frustrating distro so far (self.linux)

submitted 5 months ago by KISSmyOSFeddit to c/[email protected]

130 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I took the plunge and installed Fedora Silverblue because of all that immutable buzz. And it's the most frustrating change I have made in almost 20 years of my distrohopping.

After installing Silverblue I configured it as usual. I installed necessary flatpaks, played with toolbox and distrobox, installed codecs, configured my bluetooth keyboard and other stuff in /etc and /var. Applied some useful tweaks I found on the web and... well... everything works. Nothing to do anymore. No issues. Nothing breaks, no dependency hell, everything runs smooth. I have nothing to tweak, tinker or configure anymore. So frustrating.

Every update is just... meh. Smooth, new, fresh system not affected by my stupid tweaking and breaking. Booooring.

I don't have to distrohop anymore. If I want other distros I can just install them in distrobox. Other versions of apps? Something from AUR perhaps...? No problem. What's the point of distrohopping now? Other DEs? I just rebase my system to other images with almost any DE or WM I want without losing data or messing everything up (damn you, UBlue!).

I don't even have to reinstall the damn thing cause every time I update the system or rebase it to another image it's like reinstalling it.

Silverblue killed distrohopping for me. Really frustrating.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I'm a bit behind on these immutable distros and have a small question. People keep saying you can just switch to another image if you want to switch desktop environments. But how does this solve the problem of the config files of the various DEs (GTK rc files or other theme stuff) messing with each other in the home directory? Because this was always a pain in the ass in normal distros

[–] Pfifel 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Switching DEs is not recommended by devs so I assume the configs are still conflicting. Home dir doesn't get affected by an image rebase most likely.

[–] hessnake 7 points 5 months ago

I've switched between Plasma, Cosmic, Sway, and Hyprland without any conflicts. For the Plasma 5->6 transition it did change my config in a way that broke Plasma 5 when I rolled back, so problems are possible.

Basically your mileage may vary.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

it's in the official documentation lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

But how does this solve the problem of the config files of the various DEs (GTK rc files or other theme stuff) messing with each other in the home directory?

It does not. Your dotfiles will be a bit wrecked when you rebase. See: https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/why-is-rebasing-between-desktop-environments-bad/690/4 It’ll also cause random issues like: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/flatpak-apps-crashing-after-rebasing-from-silverblue-to-kinoite/83623/2

It’s mostly plasma fighting gnome, though. I haven’t seen any conflicts with say, sway.

[–] barsquid 7 points 5 months ago

Your files are a mutable part, they stick around for rebase and rollback. (I believe /etc also.) If it's only files in a home directory you could try a different DE by making a new user. But yeah I don't think it has a built-in solution for something like that.

[–] iopq 2 points 5 months ago

I guess you just have to use home manager on NixOS

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

yeah, home directory is mutable, but you can simply create another user, the /etc is also mutable(the system do a diff of it every update) but you can see every file that changed there(compared with the remote image) using ostree, or create another deploy where you discart your /etc, so, if you discart your /etc, and create another user, you have fresh install, without needing to reinstall using a pendrive etc