Immutable Omarchy

[rdtechie]

Omarchy is a great initiative. I'm using it for a few weeks now and it's great. I am looking forward to the full distribution! Thanks @dhh!

Problem

There's one problem I see with Omarchy.

It is mutable. With every package install, configuration tweak or OS update the system can become broken. One bad update or a typo in a command can leave us with a broken system.

Proposal

I'd like to propose to make the distribution immutable. Ship it as a readonly image that can be updated atomically. This has as an advantage that if something breaks, a rollback can be done instantly. Applications and configurations live on top of the image in containers/overlays in user space, so customizations can still be done without touching the core OS.

Some examples of immutable distributions:

• Project Bluefin: focuses on developers, comes with container tooling out of the box.
• Bazzite: gamer focused with Steam/Proton & Wine.
• Steam Deck's OS also runs in this way.

Some benefits:

• True rolling updates: I can update knowing that I easily can roll back.
• Separation of concerns: The core OS stays clean, user space is mine to tweak.
• Consistent, predictable and resilient installations.

How

Use libostree. It’s a Git like, versioned filesystem manager that deploys full OS snapshots atomically. Rollbacks are instant. System and user space stay separate (/var, /home untouched).

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This is a chance to build the first libostree-based Arch distribution. Try Project Bluefin and you will see why I like it and am proposing this.

[dhh]

Thanks for the suggestion, but this distro is designed for developers. The potential that things can break if you do it wrong is part of the package. This isn't a gamer setup where you can't ask folks to find a terminal to fix things.

What we're going to explore instead is btrfs snapshots and rollbacks, though. Glad those other distros are pursuing immutability, though! We should have all varieties.

[rdtechie]

Agreeing on btrfs! But spin up Project Bluefin (made for developers as well) for 5 minutes, you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Did I also mentioned the owner of the Bluefin project endorses Framework as well 😅? I think both your visions align quite well and would benefit both Omarchy and Bluefin.

Anyway, I'll rest my case and continue using Omarchy!

[dhh]

I think Bluefin is great, and I'm happy we have room for a lot of different options! But Omarchy is chasing a specific goal here, and I don't think immutability is compatible with that.