this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
5165 readers
199 users here now
A community for everything relating to the linux operating system
Also check out [email protected]
Original icon base courtesy of [email protected] and The GIMP
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeh, immutable distros... You can install software, it's just you have to declaratively define what software you want, then apply that as a patch.
You don't just
apt install cowsay
, you have to create a file that defines the installation of cowsay.This way, if you have to change how cowsay is installed, you tweak that patch file and reapply it.
If you have to wipe & reinstall (or get a new computer or whatever) you just apply all your patches, and the system is the same again.
You're talking about declarative systems like Nix. Immutable just means that the root filesystem is read-only. You can install programs as Flatpaks or inside a container (toolbox on Silverblue).
Oh, no kidding.
I always thought immutable required the declarative installs.
I guess, immutable is more "containerised userland"?