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What's the proper way to install every-day CLI tools on immutable distributions like Fedora Bluefin? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

Isn't the purpose of an immutable OS supposed to be for things like specific services that generally aren't supposed to be logged into? For example a web-proxy, or log-forwarder or maybe some kind of LB front-end?

I didn't think "daily driving" an immutable OS as a user who needs to invoke a shell was its purpose.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    You're indeed describing workflows that suit servers better. Be it "immutable"(/atomic) or not.

    But, atomicity (i.e., updates either occur as a whole or simply don't at all) have been used on our phones (source) for quite a while now. And we do all kinds of things on our phones.

    Similarly, we might borrow other concepts for reliability: like e.g. making part of the root filesystem read-only at runtime. On Fedora Atomic (and its derivatives; OP's Bluefin being one of them), this basically only applies to /usr. This is the extent of its immutability. Most of the remaining root folder is symlinked to /var (source). Which, together with /etc, continues to be mutable. Thus, enabling it to become perfectly suitable for desktop workflows. Like, literally; there's very little you actually can't do on these. The main difference being how. Hence, it's more of a paradigm shift if anything.

    Rant on the naming schemeUnfortunately, the name "immutable distro" doesn't do a great job at conveying the nuance described above. Heck, while atomic distro is definitely more descriptive, I don't think it helps to group/categorize these distros under one name beyond contrasting it to the traditional model. Simply, because the guts of these distros tend to differ a lot compared to traditional distros. I'm afraid that this will inevitably lead to a shift in how these convos will go: Instead of peeps making all kinds of assumptions because "immutability", they might make all kinds of assumptions based on their experiences with the popular kids; i.e. Fedora Atomic and NixOS.

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