Thank you for your reply!

Thank you, this helps even further.

It has been my pleasure 😊!

I scratched the surface of immutable and this further dissects it into deeper “categories”.

Yup. For your information, ‘immutable’ distros have only gained popularity relatively recently. In fact, for a long time, it was pretty obscure.

In 2003 we had the initial release of our first ‘immutable’ distro; NixOS. Then, inspired by it, Guix System was released in 2012. After which, within a couple of years, the distros with connections to enterprise Linux got their first ‘immutable’ distros:

• Fedora in 2014 with Fedora Atomic Host (later CoreOS)
• Ubuntu in 2016 with Ubuntu Core
• openSUSE in 2017 with openSUSE MicroOS

However, these three were primarily meant for server and/or IoT. Then, in 2018, Fedora released Fedora Atomic Workstation (which later changed its name to Fedora Silverblue). I’d argue we owe the current renaissance of ‘immutable’ distros to it. And then, inspired by Fedora Silverblue, we’ve had the release of dozens of 'immutable’ distros in the last 2/3 years (including openSUSE MicroOS Desktop (later openSUSE Aeon) in 2021). Ubuntu has yet to release their Ubuntu Core Desktop. Though, it’s in active development.

However, even if we’d limit ourselves to the earlier mentioned ‘immutable’ distros (i.e. Fedora Atomic, Guix System, NixOS, openSUSE MicroOS and Ubuntu Core), we find that they’re very different to one another. Heck, by comparison, e.g. Arch, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu aren’t actually that different to each other.

Though, perhaps curiously, we find that at least 80% of the user base of ‘immutable’ distros are using either Fedora Atomic (and/)or NixOS.

My first thought is that, if I didn’t know about immutable distros in the first place (aside from the meaning of the term), I probably wouldn’t know what I’m missing or gaining.

Exactly.

My uses for Linux will grow across 3 categories.

1. Business and office work. Mainly spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and virtual meetings

2. 3D Design, 3D Printing, bitmap and vector graphics editing, coding, and retro video game development

3. Streaming via OBS, ATEM, webcam, HDMI capture, and various USB inputs and devices.

As far as I can tell, none of these should necessarily bring up problems or troubles on ‘immutable’ distros.

To give an example of something that’s not or less supported on ‘immutable’ distros: Unified Kernel Image with Secure Boot.

AFAIK, openSUSE Aeon can do it currently. But IIRC, there’s no documentation. NixOS can actually do it as well and there’s plenty of documentation on it. Fedora Atomic can’t yet, but there’s active development surrounding it. However, I don’t expect this feature on the smaller ‘immutable’ distros. Hence, for them, I’d regard this as absolutely impossible.

I have tried building machines on non-tablets and have got 80% of the way there with all 3. The tablet has me 100% with 1 & 2.

I’m glad to hear that!

This all gives me a greater understanding that helps me avoid and research more into the options based on needs.

Great! FWIW, if there’s anything to take from this interaction, then it’s definitely this.