I'm not a Linux user (yet) and I'd like to understand what "immutable" means here. Does it mean that I can't, eg, install Elixir or an IDE on it? I have absolutely no interest in deeply tuning the OS, which is why I'm interested here - I've been on Windows for decades for a reason. But if installing applications is blocked, or cumbersome, then who is this for?

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tremon 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

It means the base system doesn't support individual package updates. Similar to a docker image, upgrading to the next version requires a complete base-image upgrade. In general, it shouldn't affect your ability to add additional software on top, but it may impact how you do so (e.g. Fedora Silverblue only allows Flatpak containers on top of the base OS).

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Avshalom 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Immutable here just means there is a base OS+libs that you don't touch. So now elixir or an ide would install in a sandbox with any needed libraries not included in that base instead of install all the libraries and stuff globally

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skrebbel 3 days ago | parent [-]

So then if I do "mix deps.get" to fetch elixir libs, will that work? will it be able to compile files that are outside the sandbox?

	▲	Avshalom 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		if mix can work without sudo\|root it will absolutely work in an "immutable distro" on the other hand: this particular immutable distro may not have all the c libraries BEAM/Elixir expect in that base and while SilverBlue does let you add to the base this doesn't sound like it will. So it might take some effort, hard to say at this point, though you can always add to your PATH