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After moving from Windows 10 to Linux, I quickly found a new home in Fedora KDE Plasma. It does what I want, it’s very stable, and I really like how it automatically keeps the last three OS versions, so you can use those if something breaks in the newest build. However, I also knew that Fedora comes in a few flavors, and I really wanted to try a different one on my laptop and see what it’s like compared to my current workstation.

This time, I really wanted to give Fedora Silverblue a try. It was mainly born from my desire to check out an immutable OS, as I’ve only used mutable ones in the past. And if you check out sources like Fedora Magazine and the current Fedora objectives, it seems that the foundation really wants Fedora to be an immutable system in the future. So, it’s time to check out what the future holds for me with Fedora Silverblue and immutable systems as a whole.

Where we’re going, we don’t need DNF

It’s Flatpak time, baby

If you’re unsure as to what “immutable” and “mutable” operating systems are, it’s actually a pretty huge deal as to how the computer handles day-to-day tasks. Mutable operating systems are your standard fare; these allow you and the apps you run to modify system files and add entries to them. If you want to run an app on your system, you can install it. Simple.

Immutable ones don’t let you edit the core operating system. This means no installing any apps, but in exchange, there’s no chance that something you install will begin eroding your system core. When you update the system, it grabs a new image, which lets you flit between past builds with ease.

That sounds cool and all, but...how are we going to use apps on an immutable system if it doesn’t let us install anything? The key here is with Flatpaks. These are little sandbox containers that run apps without needing to install them, so you can still grab and use apps like Google Chrome and Discord on an immutable system. You just can’t install them.

Fortunately, Fedora always comes with a way to search Flathub for Flatpaks of your favorite apps. So, all I had to do was boot it up and start grabbing the apps I needed. I tried installing an app using DNF out of curiosity, and Silverblue didn’t even let me run it. Yep, we’re in the future, alright.

Creating a new layer within Fedora Silverblue

For when you absolutely, definitely need to install something

That’s not to say you’re totally locked out of installing stuff, however. You can install things using the rpm-ostree command, which adds a layer to the current image. However, doing so kind of erodes the idea of using an immutable system, so it’s best to use Flatpaks and containers if you can.

I wanted to toy around with layering, so I made a new layer that installed the “htop” command. This layer created a new image of my Fedora install. Now I had two of them; one pre-htop, and one with htop. Now that I had both, I could swap between them using the “sudo rpm-ostree rollback” command. This means I can install something in a layer, check whether it affects my system, and instantly roll back to the old version if my latest addition messes up my OS. I’m not sure what kind of catastrophic event needs to happen for the htop command to bring Fedora to its knees, but if it did happen, I’ll be ready.

If I decide I want to keep htop around, I can stick with the image and add something else to it. Then I can rollback between the htop images with and without my addition, and if things really go pear-shaped, I could dust off my pre-htop image again and head back there. And because I’m swapping between images, and not something like recovery points, I’m not deleting anything. All my images are still there, and I can swap to them whenever I like. Very cool.

I’ll keep experimenting for now, but I am already impressed

I can definitely see why Fedora wants most of its systems to be immutable in the future. Having the OS and the software separate feels right, and the layered system with a rollback feature that doesn’t delete anything is a fantastic way to install things without ruining the OS. I need some more time with Fedora Silverblue to really get a sense of what an immutable system can truly do for me, and I may hop over to Fedora Kinoite to get my beloved KDE environment back. However, in terms of experiencing a “futuristic OS,” I was really impressed with what I saw as a beginner to immutable systems. Can’t wait to see how this tech evolves!