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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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[–] Lurkki 22 points 1 year ago (7 children)

In the case of NixOS at least, 'immutable' doesn't mean you can't change the system at all.

It just means you cannot change the currently installed set of packages and services (generation in NixOS parlance); all you can do is create new ones and delete old ones.

Basically every update might as well be a complete reinstall of /usr, /etc and whatnot if you compare it to traditional distros.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If you can't change etc, how do you configure your software?

[–] Lurkki 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

By having the right configuration file there as part of the package's options, like:

globalProgram.doFoo = true; or something like

globalProgram.extraConfig = "barCount=4567";

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are those changes system-wide or stored in user space? Where are those files stored?

[–] Lurkki 2 points 1 year ago

It's system-wide (unless home-manager is involved).

They're a part of the immutable install, whose components reside in /nix/store and are symlinked to /etc.

Example from my computer:

$ realpath /etc/sddm.conf 
/nix/store/slkq2k8vc4rx4ag55zf8ssl7qd9ry49v-sddm.conf

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