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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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What's up with all these immutable distributions? What are the benefits and disadvantages of them? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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For once I feel a little out of touch after I took a bit of a break from following the news to focus on studying, and suddenly everyone is talking about immutable distributions. What are they exactly? What are the benefits and the disadvantages of immutable systems?

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[+] TCB13 -13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You know, there was Ansible, containers, ZFS and BTRFS that provided all the required immutability needed already but someone decided to transform regular machines into MIPS-style shitty devices that have a read-only OSes and a separate partition for configs. :D

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

TBF the unix model originally was read only mounted / and /usr - typically in a separate partition - so they were immutable for decades. It's only later when home users started using single partition models that that really broke.

But the separation is built right in.. /etc for config, /home for user stuff, etc. so there's really no need for another layer.. it's not like windows were it's common to store the configuration in the same directory as the binaries.. so not really seeing what the current fad is about. Presumably something will come out of it, maybe even a standard..

[–] InverseParallax 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm with you, I want more reliability but immutable is a bit of a long way to go to get it.

I get why people are willing to make the tradeoff though, docker taught us os configuration should be done programmatically, my workflow is just used to constantly fidgeting things till they feel right, to each their own.