Some days ago we published a piece of news in which we anticipated Canonical's intention to release a version of Ubuntu that would use all the software in snap packages. It would be an immutable option, which in other words is something that cannot be broken and is tamper-proof. Of course, sacrificing a lot for those who prefer to have more control over their operating system. That option can already be tested, although I think it goes without saying that it is not ready for production teams.
I just discovered the news thanks to Joey Sneddon, who has explained how to get hold of one of these images (we detail it below). Once we download the image we can test how it would be, although initially, that version of Ubuntu immutable, and I must admit that the test has not been very satisfactory.
How to test the immutable version of Ubuntu
The steps to follow to test the immutable version of Ubuntu would be these:
- We go to the Ubuntu Core GitHub page and then we go to the “Actions” section (direct link).
- We look for a “build-image” and click.
- Below, in “artifacts”, we click on “image” and download it. It is a ZIP of about 2GB.
- Once the ZIP is downloaded, we unzip it. In the end we will have an image that at the time of writing this article is called pc.img and has a weight of about 12GB.
To test it we can do it from GNOME Boxes (I haven't tried VirtualBox) if we activate UEFI startup, and it can also be recorded on a USB (minimum 16GB) with tools like Etcher. Here you have a gallery with images of the installation process:
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- Welcome screen
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- choice of keyboard
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- Privacy options
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- Time zone
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- Online accounts
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- Ubuntu user creation
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- Set the password
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- End of the Ubuntu installation process
The previous images will be seen after a while in which we will see the following, with the different packages that are being installed:
And in the following screenshot we can see the images that are installed by default:
I am adding many screenshots because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And the following makes it clear that you cannot make use of sudo (apt is not installed):
The software store is the Snap Store, which doesn't even feature the Ubuntu logo, but is slightly different than what we see in the current non-snap version. No normal DEB package software appears.
If all goes as planned, this immutable version of Ubuntu will arrive in April 2024, coinciding with the release of Ubuntu 24.04 NAnimal.