I’ve been using Clear Linux but I’m thinking about switching to something more mainstream and easier to use. I have questions about Silverblue and Kinoite. Does “immutable” mean that I can never install software, and never change or customize the look of the OS? What would be the pros and cons of using Silverblue or Kinoite over the regular version of Workstation 35?
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We can install software when using Silverblue/Kinoite.
The preferred way is using flatpak versions.
If really needed, RPM versions in accessible repositories can be installed as “overlays”.
It is also possible to override components that comes with the base installations.
To me, the best of Silverblue / Kinoite is I can fall back easily to the last know config - provided that the BootLoaders are intact (which during normal use, BootLoaders seldom got modified.)
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been reading about it. Looks like there are flatpaks for the programs I want (Geary and Gnome Extensions). Is it possible to customize the look? Does it have a dark mode? Sorry if the questions are dumb but I am not familiar with Fedora.
Being Immutable is main concern with how we install / remove applications.
How those it work for each application, is more or less the same (apart from apps being run in container mode or flatpak version in sandbox mode will have its own restrictions.)
IMO if you want deeper customizations, you should look into KDE/Kinoite. But there are options for Gnome as well. If you go Silverblue, I’d suggest installing Gnome Tweaks as an overlay. Gnome extensions will work out-of-the-box.
rpm-ostree install gnome-tweaks
Are themes handled by Gnome Tweaks? Or do I need something else? Can they be downloaded from the software center?