I recently switched to Bluefin OS for my main desktop. It’s a derivative of Fedora Silverblue, but it comes prebundled with proprietary drivers and extra tools that make life easier.

What is an Immutable OS?

If you use an iPhone, an Android, or a Chromebook, you’re already using an immutable OS. Essentially, the core system files are read-only. You don’t “install” apps into the system’s guts; they live in isolated containers. This makes the OS nearly impossible to break and incredibly easy to update or roll back if something goes wrong.

Trade-offs

Living in a read-only world has a few quirks. For example, the Private Internet Access app doesn’t work because it tries to modify system files that Bluefin won’t let it touch. I routed around this by writing a simple bash script to handle my connection.

Stuff like web servers on the bare metal would be a bit of a nightmare, but this is easily fixed by doing everything in a container. A bonus of containerising everyhing, is that I can now move my development system between computers more easily.

Conclusion

IMO, immutable OSs are the future. What do you think