this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
192 points (95.3% liked)
Linux
56562 readers
785 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It sounds like a cool distro but I don't see any advantages compared to NixOS, aside from maybe the option to make it more minimal for constrained environments.
it's a lot less scuffed in some ways while still giving you a lot of control and a lot of tools for declarative system management. it's also waaay better documented. it's comfy.
Completely different -- nixos is about repeatability, while Gentoo is about build optimization, customization, and performance.
Why does every one need to compare every distro to NixOS? We get it. It's neat. It's immutable. It's indestructible. But they are fundamentally different stuffs.
You can set it up to compile all your software yourself with the exact options you want, just like Gentoo. Not how most people use it, but still, NixOS can fulfill some of the same roles as Gentoo, they are very comparable.