Immutable operating systems, a new category of Linux distributions, are gaining attention in the open source community. These operating systems, including NixOS, Guix, Endless OS, Fedora Silverblue, OpenSUSE MicroOS, Vanilla OS, and more, have the common feature of immutability. However, the definition of immutability is vague when it comes to operating systems. The implementations of these systems vary, but they generally involve system upgrades being done on the next boot, package changes applied on the next boot, and the ability to rollback changes. While these systems offer benefits such as the ability to rollback changes and transactional updates, there are also challenges and limitations, such as difficulty in integrating with configuration management tools and the need to reboot after each change. Despite the challenges, the concept of immutability in operating systems is an area of interest and research in the open source community.
https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2023-07-12-intro-to-immutable-os.html