Re:VanillaOS: Immutable Ubuntu-Based Linux
by goodpoint on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:14AM
(#34197737)
Wrong. Immutable does not mean unpatchable at all.
Re:VanillaOS: Immutable Ubuntu-Based Linux
by lightedman on Sunday January 01, 2023 @04:31AM
(#34204954)
If you can simply patch it, that's mutable, not immutable, by definition. Immutable means unchangeable without exception.
Re:VanillaOS: Immutable Ubuntu-Based Linux
by goodpoint on Sunday January 01, 2023 @06:19AM
(#34205447)
You are misunderstanding what immutable infrastructure is. You don't buy some SSD with a preinstalled OS and use it as it is for 10 years.
The point is in not making changes on the fly on live systems. You are perfectly able (and encouraged) to deploy new nodes with updated software and roll over the old nodes.
In the security world, an immutable system is an unpatchable system. If a 0-day is found in the system image, you can't fix it, you have to get a new image going. This causes wasted personnel-hours, wasted money, and some times wasted hardware if the image happens to be on a ROM-type of data storage. I've seen immutable systems on WORM HDDs. The people running those types of systems quickly got tired of having to do hardware replacements for every patch.