com.skype.Client VS ostree

Screen sharing seems to be a difficult problem to resolve. Zoom only just resolved this recently[1], Webex has been promising a fix for a while[2], and Skype still hasn't done anything[3].

[1] https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/6634039380877-Zoom...

[2] https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/9vstcdb/Webex-App-for-L...

[3] https://github.com/flathub/com.skype.Client/issues/142

If the device still works in the os and just not in skype. I would try the flatpak package. https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.skype.Client

https://snapcraft.io/skype or Flatpak https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.skype.Client

I also found some old issue on Github Latest version of Skype won't run #70

Alternatively one can use the Flatpak packaged Skype.

I have no idea if that is true or not, I haven't used Skype for more than a decade. But, an app running as a Flatpak can't directly create files in /etc/ even if that directory was exposed in the sandbox (which it isn't in the Skype flatpak, as you can see here), just like any other process running as a non-root user can't create files in /etc/ (unless your permissions on /etc/ are severely messed up). So if what you claim is true, it has nothing to do with Flatpak's sandbox or with portals. And since in the default configuration the pulseaudio daemon (which is running outside the sandbox) does not run as root either, I severly doubt that what you claim here is true at all.

Ansible makes mutable changes to the OS, task by task.

Nix is immutable. A new change is made entirely new, and only after the build is successful, all packages are "symlinked" to the current system.

Fedora Silverblue is based on ostree [1]. It works similarly like git, but on your root tree. But it requires you to reboot the whole system for the changes to take effect. Since Nix is just symlinked packages, you don't need to reboot the system.

More detailed explanation here [2].

[1]: https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree

[2]: https://dataswamp.org/~solene/2023-07-12-intro-to-immutable-...

This one is for the ostree bug currently ongoing: https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree/issues/2900

This sounds related to the ostree bug.

I definitely agree that immutability offers considerable value in regards to improving security. But arguably it's insufficient to pull the win over mutable Fedora due to the losses caused by the inability to install the kernel-hardened package and the lack of UKI (Unified Kernel Image) support.

Other hardening guides mention a Unified Kernel Image as another measure to further improve security. Unfortunately, once more, this is (currently) not supported on Fedora Silverblue. I haven't seen it being done on openSUSE Aeon either. Though, once again, I'd love to be corrected!

The fedora crew is working on it through ostree though, so both fedora Silverblue and flatpak will be getting it (as well as true immutability) in the future: https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree/issues/2867

Aside from what has already been mentioned, Unified Kernel Image isn't supported (yet).