😂. No worries fam.

I’m so confused now as I’m trying to understand why you answered that way 😅.

But, if I understood you correctly, you didn’t refer to Silverblue and Kinoite as immutable, because it is possible to apply changes to them and these changes will even stick through reboots etc. Hence, you don’t deny that some parts are (in fact) deniable, but find that Atomic simply better describes what these distros actually do. And thus are better suited to set up the right expectations.

But, allow me to ask the following question then; do you think NixOS is immutable?

So, you referred to immutable in the absolute sense? If not, would you be so kind to mention distros/systems that you actually refer to as immutable?

Thank you for clarifying what you didn’t write nor mean. Could you be so kind to explain what you did mean with what’s quoted below?

Those are not immutable, especially on the file system.

For grannies, I like to go with Endless OS. Curiously, it combines aspects of the two most named distros under this post; based on Debian and utilizing OSTree (like Fedora Atomic does).

It’s often overlooked (for some reason), but actually combines the best of both worlds:

• Over two years of support (since release), while Fedora Atomic only offers 13 months of support since release
• Automatic updates are enabled by default and updates are applied atomically in the background, while Debian(-based) are not capable of atomic updates
• Does not even offer installing software through apt and doesn’t even have it’s own rpm-ostree counterpart. Instead, it goes all-in on Flatpak.

The only thing that might give something like Fedora Atomic an edge would be by installing any of the opinionated uBlue images (like Aurora/Bazzite/Bluefin etc.) that just apply and ship fixes for you (without requiring you to do anything for it) and that are even capable of automatically applying updates to major releases for you in the background. This is basically just hands-off mode.

So you’re saying that most directories in /usr and (also) some other directories in / are not read-only during runtime (under regular system maintenance/management) on Fedora Atomic?

is PopOS! still the popular choice for desktop gaming?

Pop!_OS was pretty good for two reasons:

• System76 sells devices installed with it. Thus, onboarding (potentially new) users is something they put significant efforts into. As a result, it was a pretty polished experience that offers some unique functionality like factory reset and
• Easiest install for proprietary Nvidia drivers on the market

But, the Linux landscape is always on the move. And while the engineers behind Pop!_OS have put their hearts and souls into COSMIC (a new Desktop Environment), the current available version of Pop!_OS has seen only relatively timid changes. Thus, it has become less competitive over time.

For example, over the past two years, distros have erupted that come with built-in Nvidia drivers (pre-installed).

So, Pop!_OS has gone slightly out of favor. But, if you liked what you had back then, then it’s still perfectly reasonable to continue using it.

But…, if you’re actually interested in the latest and greatest Linux for desktop gaming, then we’d have to mention the following:

• Bazzite; built-on technologies made possible through Fedora Atomic. This is one of the few distros that, based on its installer, come with built-in Nvidia drivers pre-installed. Rock-solid atomic system that comes with all the bells and whistles without sacrificing any general functionality nor high security standards. Offers decent documentation (please consider to read up on it) and has thought up great onboarding solutions. All-in-all, it’s (probably) the most hands-off gaming experience on Linux.
• ChimeraOS; this is more of a couch-gaming/console experience. Unfortunately, only supports AMD. Definitely worth mentioning still.

Honorable mentions:

• Nobara; Glorious Eggroll’s (will be abbreviated to GE) distro. GE is well known for providing all kinds of gaming related goodies. For example, a popular set of Proton releases/derivatives is Proton-GE and it’s often recommended over the others. So, the community was very excited when GE announced (and shortly after) released its contribution to Linux distros for gaming; a Fedora-based distro called Nobara. It did a lot of good things and still does. However, as a former Nobara user, I have to say that updates for major releases are pretty hit or (mostly) miss. This is not GE’s fault; it’s the nature of the beast. Reproducible distros (like Bazzite) are able to circumvent these issues with help of incredible engineering that goes on in the background. But, this is not Nobara’s stronghold. (And let’s not even talk about the bus factor.) If you’re fine with potentially reinstalling every once in a while, then, by all means proceed. But, if you’d rather not, then other options are better.
• Linux Mint (Edge ISO); this is just the goodness we’ve come to appreciate from Linux Mint but with a more up-to-date kernel. Kernel updates often come with improvements to performance. So, with this, you won’t be missing out. Like Pop!_OS, it’s based on Ubuntu. The only caveat with Mint is the fact that it’s not enabled to game from the get-go. The required steps to get it all setup aren’t very hard, but it’s great to just have everything setup for gaming from the start.

Technically not a distro, but give Bazzite a try. It’s probably the most hands-off gaming experience on Linux. Valve employees also make contributions to it.

Out of the ones provided by UTM, it’s Fedora by virtue of SELinux.