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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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Immutable Operating Systems: Yay or Nay? (self.linux)

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

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I've seen a lot of talks on the benefits of immutable distros (specifically Fedora Silverblue) but it always seemed to me as more of a hassle. Has anyone here been daily driving an immutable distro? Would you say it's worth the effort of getting into?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not using an immutable distro, but I am daily driving a KVM-based Gentoo setup where most of my VMs use transient (immutable) storage and iSCSI where persistence is required.

I'd say that immutability has a ton of benefits for security and reliability, but it's important to be able to customize things when needed. I'm not sure an immutable distro would offer much in the way of customization though.

In my case I am generally unable to harm my system without meaning to, and I'm able to test new configurations without issue. I have lost data before when accidentally saving to a transient disk, but this is something I could fix with better scripting.

I'd say that in general, incremental backups are a better solution if you're only looking to avoid messing up the system. But immutability is a good option if you like containers or have some other way to configure things before locking them down.