Immutable Operating Systems: Yay or Nay?
Immutable Operating Systems: Yay or Nay?
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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I have very little familiarity with most immutable distros and I don't know how difficult they are to make necessary configurations to system files. If I can't change things that need to be changed, that's an issue for me.
That said, I've just started looking at NixOS, which is immutable from my understanding. It looks incredible, because you preconfigure everything exactly how you like in a config file then build the system from that config. It seems like the best of all worlds - total control over your system to configure it how you want, multiple easy fallbacks if you mess something up, no worries about forgetting what changes you've made or how to replicate/undo them, and the security and unbreakability of an immutable filesystem. For the first time since I started daily driving Linux, I think I'm going to distro hop.
I'm using NixOS currently on both my gaming pc and my laptop, you should absolutely try it it's as good as it sounds
Takes a bit of learning if you want to use it to its fullest but it's great out of the box too provided you read the getting started guide
If you do make the switch I would highly recommend putting your NixOS configuration file(s) in source control of some kind, it'll let you revert to previous builds out of the box but afaik you can't revert the config file itsself
I am looking at switching but gaming is a potential pain point.
Does Steam. Heroic and proton all work?
Yep. Haven't tried heroic on my PC but I've heard great things about it and provided you enable it with programs.steam.enable = true; in your config steam and proton work a charm. Even better performance depending on the game
You didn't ask but the battle.net launcher also works pretty well under proton