• Virkkunen@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    How is atomic less confusing? Immutable means that something doesn’t change, atomic means that it’s the size of an atom or has nuclear energy

    EDIT: I’ve learned that some people are overly pedantic about the meaning and practical use of the word “immutable”, so much so that they decided to create a bigger confusion by giving another word a completely different and exclusive meaning

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Settings live in user space. Software exist in containers like AppImage, Flatpak or Distrobox. If something need deep system integration, they can be layered on top of the system in the user layer. Immutable does NOT mean less control. Just exerting control over the system in a different, usually more systematic, automatic and deterministic way.

        • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Ah yes, the immutable OS, except for all of the various mutable parts.

          We should totally not call it anything less confusing.

          • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            It’s not confusing at all… How is this any more confusing than:

            Flatpak - they’re not literally flat…

            Snap - I’ve never seen or heard any evidence of something snapping by any definition of the word I’m aware of.

            Dolphin - what the fuck is this, no sea life whatsoever!

            Kate - this is a text editor, not a person.

            Distrobox - not in an actual box.

            etc.

            • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              The main difference to your examples is that an “immutable OS” is in fact mutable, while none of your examples describe themselves with an adjective that is contradicting with their function/inner workings.

              Flatpak is a pretty good name, because it makes software flat in the sense that it avoids having a (tall) dependency tree.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                2 months ago

                I installed Bottles, but was disappointed when it didn’t actually have anything to do with bottles.

                If you think every name of every product, etc., is going to be literal… you’re gonna have a tough time in life.

                • Deckweiss@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Bottles is a noun and not an adjective.

                  Also bottles has no IT related meaning, while immutable does.

                  “Immutable OS” is not a product name.


                  An “immutable” OS becomes mutable whenever a user wants to change anything on it.

                  Now imagine I keep describing my car as undrivable, because it only becomes drivable when somebody gets in and drives it. - You’d think that this is a completely deranged statement.