I recently took up Bazzite from mint and I love it! After using it for a few days I found out it was an immutable distro, after looking into what that is I thought it was a great idea. I love the idea of getting a fresh image for every update, I think for businesses/ less tech savvy people it adds another layer of protection from self harm because you can’t mess with the root without extra steps.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with immutable distros I attached a picture of mutable vs immutable, I don’t want to describe it because I am still learning.

My question is: what does the community think of it?

Do the downsides outweigh the benefits or vice versa?

Could this help Linux reach more mainstream audiences?

Any other input would be appreciated!

  • penquin@lemm.ee
    0·
    15 days ago

    Newbies should have no business messing with stuff like this to begin with. They should start with mint and call it a day. Lol

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
      0·
      15 days ago

      Definitely not, this kind of system is perfect for newbies. You have a distrobox you can break all day long, and your main system stays nice and working.

      That’s what I mean. You put it like it’s incredibly complicated and strange, when there’s pretty much only upsides. Do you have any idea how much time I’ve spent on various distributions to debug NVidia issues? Everything is working perfectly now, and it has for months. I’ve never had this good of a Linux experience.

      • penquin@lemm.ee
        0·
        3 days ago

        Yo, mister foobarrington. So, since you’re an expert on these immutables, thought I might ask your help on something. I have a handheld that runs like shit on windows (they all do), and I’ve installed chimera OS on it. It works pretty nicely, but the fan is full blast at all times, so I wanted to install a program called HHD and it’s UI, but this thing is a freaking immutable. I did unlock it with a random command I found online and installed my program via their aur helper called ‘pikaur’. It works now with no issues, but I know that any new update is going to nuke it and I’ll have to redo this whole thing again. How can I make this installed program stick throughout updates. Does distrobox do the trick? Never tried distrobox, so I’m not sure if it allows installation of actual dependencies/drivers that stick through immutable updates. Chimera OS is based on Arch, just to add some context. Thanks

        Edit: oh also, I’m about to experiment with Fedora knt os-tree, on an extra laptop I have, to see if I can make it workout. I do like the idea of a system that won’t break on me easily. And if I miss my AUR, I’ll mess with distrobox. If I like it then I’m moving it to my main machine. Will see.

        • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 days ago

          Hey! So I have no experience with the Arch-based immutable systems (beyond my own Steam Deck), but it seems like they don’t support layering the way Fedora does with ostree. The easiest solution for you would be to create a script that you can execute after every update - that should at least keep the work to a minimum. If that’s not good enough Bazzite is probably your best bet. I really like the atomic Fedora systems, but I can understand not wanting to re-do your setup if it’s working well!

          • penquin@lemm.ee
            0·
            3 days ago

            No bazzite on this handheld. It is not usable on it. Wifi disables after each suspend and I’d have to reboot the device to get it back. Also, the screen never recognized by the system, so it’s always black, and all I can do is connect it to my external monitor to get things going. It’s just a brick on Bazzite. I guess I’ll just create the script and call it a day then. Thank you.