#vanillaos

I’ve never used Vanilla OS, but I see mentions of it popping up more and more. Interesting that it has already embraced the immutable approach to the root desktop OS so that the root file system is read-only.

One could be led to think of Vanilla OS as a “frankenlinux” distribution, as it seems to be an amalgamation of Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE, thanks to the package-management wrapper, called Apx, which allows for the installation of packages from various sources. Those packages are also installed within containers, so you don’t have to worry about them accessing your root file system and wreaking havoc (should a malicious app accidentally be installed). Vanilla OS supports Flatpaks, AppImages, and even Android apps.

Another blog post I made yesterday also referred to Vanilla OS as being only one of two distros that has a dual-root-volume system, (much like Android has) so what this all says is Vanilla OS should be pretty immune to being seriously broken by updates etc. This type of approach could make it ideal for new Linux users, but also those prone to trying out some risky installations.

Yes, I much prefer Plasma as my desktop instead of GNOME, and Manjaro has now also got an immutable distro option, so I’m not intending to switch right now. But Vanilla OS should be a serious consideration, alongside Linux Mint, for any new user to decide between.