A little while ago, I gave Fedora Silverblue a try, and it felt really futuristic. By that, I mean that it was my first taste of what an "immutable" desktop is. Right now, operating systems like Windows, macOS, and most Linux distros are "mutable," meaning you can modify the system files and install apps like "normal." Fedora wants to make its operating systems "immutable," meaning that all the system files are read-only, meaning you can't install apps; they live "outside" the OS's files.

During my testing, I said that I enjoyed the immutable life. However, because I'm a huge sucker for KDE, I wanted to move away from Fedora Silverblue's GNOME base and use Fedora Kinoite instead. That way, I have a KDE Plasma base with no need to do any unnecessary meddling. So, I got Fedora Kinoite up and running, and used it as my main driver for a week straight, and while it was very weird to get used to, I can definitely see this as the future for operating systems.

Getting out of the "install everything" mindset was tricky

Decades of habits had to change

Given how I've only really used mutable operating systems for all these years, I've developed a mentality where apps 'need' to be installed. Of course, on Linux, apps don't have to be installed, but tell that to my years of downloading and double-clicking Windows installers. The idea of running an app that wasn't installed didn't click with me to begin with.

Here's an example: when I got Fedora Kinoite installed, I began loading it up with apps. For the most part, this was easy-peasy; apps like Google Chrome, Discord, and Slack were all available as Flatpaks, so I just grabbed them off Discover, no sweat.

However, I also wanted to use my cloud PC service, Shadow. Getting it working on regular KDE Plasma was a little tricky; I used the alien command to turn the official DEB file into an RPM and installed it that way. Getting it working on an immutable system seemed a lot trickier.

At first, my mind went to how to install Shadow on this system. That would have included making a special layer for it, which wasn't ideal, but I didn't know what else to do. Then I realised that Shadow comes with an AppImage, and you can just, you know...download it and run it without installing it. You know, that one thing that AppImages are great at doing? D'oh.

After a brief facepalm moment, I realised I had to turn my thinking upside-down. Instead of thinking the best way to install something, I had to think of the best way not to install something. This includes grabbing the AppImage, then setting up a custom desktop entry for KRunner and Application Manager to fetch when I want it. It also meant using apps like Distrobox to get more done with other distros.

Immutable updates are really strange

A whole new beast

Updating a mutable Linux distro (at least, when it's Fedora KDE Plasma) feels very similar to Windows. The OS will let you know there's an update available, and you can download it whenever you please. The update page lets you know what version you're updating to, plus the size. Once it's downloaded, you then have to restart or shut down your PC to apply the update.

Fedora Kinoite doesn't do this. For one, each update has some sort of monolithic version number; at the time of writing, my system has an update to bring it from version 43.20251118.0 to 43.20251119.0. The size of the update is "unknown," and once you've downloaded it, there's no prompt to restart your PC to apply it.

That last part is easy to explain, at least. Unlike mutable systems, immutable ones can't just download a few system files and then add them to the current build. Instead, it grabs a whole new image with the changes included and places it beside your current one. If updating a mutable system was like bringing a car into a pit stop, popping open the hood, making a few tweaks, and then sending it off again, updating an immutable system is like getting another near-identical car with the tweaks already applied. There's no need to pop open the hood and tweak things; you just jump out the driver's seat and sit in the other one.

Immutable systems give me all the positives, and none of the negatives

There's not much to dislike here

Other than those notes, using Fedora Kinoite felt just like using KDE Plasma. That may seem like a criticism at first, but it's actually a big boon. Once I had gotten over the oddities of using an immutable system, I got it working just like my mutable install without needing to sacrifice anything.

That means that I didn't suffer any of the drawbacks of using an immutable system while reaping all of the benefits. For instance, instead of constantly updating the same system over time, I can get a whole new image each update, which prevents bit rot. I also have access to the last two images I can swap between at any time, in case the newest update broke something. While older images get automatically deleted, I can pin one I really like and keep it around for later. And if I really wanted to, I could reach back and download a build from months ago if I really wanted to, then freely swap between it and the latest update.

Using Fedora Kinoite was boring, and that's the most exciting part

After a week of using Fedora Kinoite, I basically had a system that, on a surface level, ran and felt just like my KDE Plasma install. However, under the hood, I could swap between any image I like, and help stave off bit rot with constant image updates. So, in a way, while Fedora Kinoite was "boring" in the sense that it didn't radically change my PC and how I used it, that's exactly what makes it so exciting. Fedora has proven to me that it can implement an immutable system without rocking the boat too hard, and that makes me optimistic for the future of this tech.