As an interesting alternative, Fedora Silverblue is another experiment with immutable OSes for the masses. Haven't played with it myself, but heard good things. The DevEx might not be a solved problem with it though - chaining multiple dev tools with Flatpaks might not provide quite the same experience as having an entire isolated LXD container, as in Chrome OS.
Also, it's too bad Nvidia remains a second-class citizen, even on Chrome OS.
It is interesting that Fedora Silverblue wasn't mentioned in the discussion at all. It aims for having an immutable root filesystem with transactional updates. Like Fedora, it uses SELinux to isolate processes with security policies. It aims to be a minimal base system, where users install applications through (ideally) sandboxed Flatpaks and do development in containers [1]. Fedora has also been historically more proactive than upstreams to enable hardening features.
Another good example (as mentioned by a sibling) is ChromeOS. It, of course, has privacy problems, but ChromiumOS is available in source form AFAIK.
Regular Fedora Workstation is my standard OS these days, so I suspect Silverblue may be in my own future. I look forward to giving it a try when time allows & curiosity overwhelms!
Aside from Linux distros per se though, I think there's a need for something like ChromeOS (preinstalled, appliance-like, as foolproof as possible), but without the deep single-corp dependence. Unfortunately I don't think the market in its current state is capable of filling this need.
I use Fedora and everything works out of the box- even Steam, Nvidia drivers from the package manager, and games. This is about Silverblue, a bespoke and immutable variant of Fedora Workstation.
Fedora basically works out of the box, but Silverblue is an immutable system that you can modify by layering packages on top of the image. It's really cool, and probably The Right Way™ to handle system upgrades, but its got a bit of a learning curve.
Every now and then I give it a spin, but most IDEs aren't great at doing development inside of a container just yet, which makes it painful to work with.
I’ve been intrigued by Fedora Silverblue but never got round to trying it out, though I’m tired of potentially fighting with NVIDIA drivers whenever I update my kernel (linus_torvalds.mp4)
Have you looked into it all? I think it uses flatpak and containerizaton to separate the base OS from everything else.
Not sure if it would help with my driver issues though.
Fedora Silverblue is potentially where the future of the Linux desktop might end up. It improves on security significantly, where the system is read only, similar to macOS, and all user programs are sandboxed within flatpaks (migrated from the preexisting RPMs of these programs).
Not because this is a Fedora topic but Fedora Silverblue (or Kinoite if you prefer KDE) could be pretty much that if you create Arch or Rawhide toolbox container(s) for your development environment(s).
Besides NixOS, which is mentioned by jdally987, Fedora Silverblue also fits that bill. A basic immutable desktop OS with atomic updates/rollbacks. Applications are installed through Flatpaks or containers (per Fedora Toolbox or podman).
You might find Fedora Silverblue fascinating. It's an OS that uses Flatpak for Desktop Apps exclusively, which disposable "toolboxes" for non-Flatpak apps.
I get the best of both world. I run Fedora Silverblue, and develop inside an Arch Linux container toolbox. I get the stability and user friendliness of Fedora, an immutable system w/ Silverblue and AUR and all the Arch goodies to develop with.
This is the best workstation setup I've ever had, there's no comparison.
I myself use Fedora Silverblue with a https://ublue.it/ -based custom image, and I use home-manager for shell configuration. Sure, my GNOME layout isn't declarative, but basically everything else is. Pair that with one of the best NVIDIA driver experiences and the strong feeling of stability, it's better than most other Linuxes rn.
Also, it's too bad Nvidia remains a second-class citizen, even on Chrome OS.
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