Remember the days when everyone and their pet iguana was raving about Arch Linux? You couldn't escape the ever-so-subtle "I use Arch BTW" remarks in every Linux forum. Well, move over, Arch, because NixOS is here to steal your thunder! Nowadays, it seems that you can't browse YouTube or read a blog without stumbling upon someone extolling the virtues of NixOS and how it is the epitome of computing perfection. But hey, who needs critical analysis when we can jump on the hype train and declare NixOS as the new Arch? Because that's exactly what's going on. NixOS has now become the self-proclaimed prodigy that's poised to dethrone Arch Linux as the holy grail of Linux distributions. The time is calling, my friends! It's time for you – the seasoned Linux enthusiast – to dust off your keyboard warrior capes and embark on a new crusade. So, grab your Tux plushie (or, your pitchforks if you belong to the world of devils) and let's embark on an adventure through the enigmatic world of NixOS (and let the memes commence)!
  • uthredii@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    So how useful it is in practice?

    It’s useful for quite a few things in practise:

    • You can be sure software that is packaged with nix will behave the same on different computers.
    • You can avoid dependency conflicts.
    • You can automate some things that would otherwise take multiple (mostly manual steps) on other systems.

    This video shows off some of the cool things you can do with nix: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Le0IbPRzOE&feature=share9

    How do updates work?

    You update a programming by specifying the latest version of a program in config and rebuilding.

    You update the OS by pointing to the channel you want to use and rebuilding.

    You can time travel back to a previous state if anything goes wrong.

    Can it play Crysis?

    I expect so, some people.do use nix for gaming.

    • msage@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      You can be sure software {…} will behave the same

      never had that issue before, as long as they have the same version and config

      avoid dependency conflicts

      I have those on Gentoo sometimes, possibly because I overloaded USE too much, but that’s not something I have to deal with on Debian/Mint.

      You can time travel back to a previous state

      wasn’t that possible before with snapshotting (btrfs/lvm)?

      If it allowed me to avoid systemd, I would be willing to give it a go. Perhaps I will try it in a VM, but it’s not going on any baremetal for now.

      • uthredii@programming.devEnglish
        01·
        1 year ago

        never had that issue before, as long as they have the same version and config

        Then you are very lucky. “It worked on my machine” is a meme for a reason.

        wasn’t that possible before with snapshotting (btrfs/lvm)?

        I haven’t used snapshotting with those before. I guess the difference is that with nix it is done by the package manager by default, with btrfs/lvm you would have to set that up independently (please correct of this is not the case).

        • msage@programming.devEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Sweet, thanks. If I can configure kernel and modules, that is good enough to start with.

          How long does it take for you to rebuild?

          • uthredii@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Rebuilding after adding a single program doesn’t take too long (depends on the program but often less than a minuet).

            Rebuilding after upgrading the channel takes longer on my slow internet as many programs have version upgrades that need to be downloaded. I think it took 30-60mins last time. I imagine it would be faster with better internet.