It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.
...to get a working config, you need to learn a whole new programming language and figure out the tweaks for each package you want to install, so I'd argue the journey is just as long
NixOS sounds like a way to avoid learning Linux by learning an abstraction.
that's why I only use my computer with raw system calls, shell is bloat
You guys use an OS? I just push the electrons around my motherboard manually with a little magnet on a toothpick.
I'd personally advise against NixOS as a first distribution for that matter. It's a great distribution, but if you want to understand the underlying mechanics, start with something where you interact with them, like Arch or whatever.
Like everything with Nix, you pay a little more upfront to get a great experience later.
That's why you go for GNU Guix instead, since it's the same kind of concept but configured using the Guile Scheme you already know.
(You do already know Scheme, right?)
the Guile Scheme you already know.
⬅️➡️👊
It comes with a working config.
Adding applications and rebuilding is generally trivial.
The problem becomes if you want to use flakes or home manager, which you probably should. The config for those is complicated and poorly documented.
I don't know the programming language. I've been running it for about a month now. If you're not doing anything complicated or doing any crazy conditionals or running one config for 27 boxes it's no different than editing a yaml.
It took me about 2 days to get Nvidia working properly with offloading that was my hardest task so far.
That's not true.
You have to get PhD in functional programming first.
nix being 20 years old and still lacking decent documentation on the language it's what hurts me the most, because the people who do know it works so some amazing things with it
Imagine if NixOS had as good a wiki as Arch. Personally, I wouldn't bother with another distribution again.
They released their wiki apparently on April 1st.
So now we need just to fill it with the missing content. (which there is a lot). And it will be as good as the arch one..... In 20 years.
Or smb made a bad April's fool and actually their wiki is older.
The NixOS wiki's been around for a few years at least, it just doesn't get as much traffic from search engines since NixOS isn't super popular.
I think what they are referring to is the official wiki at wiki.nixos.org (there also is / was an unofficial wiki)
nix is 20 years old?!? I thought it was relatively new like maybe 10 years old
How often do you reinstall your OS? In practice never, I installed Arch around 8 years ago on one computer and that's the install I have today still. I copied it twice to a bigger SSD but that's kind of it.
There is a certain thrill when you nuke your disk to install a distro you never tried before. I actually just nuke one of my laptop last night to try void linux.
I was wondering if Void was still popular. It was kind of feeling like NixOS took all its hype
It is getting traction lately, the last few years. I myself am a Void user. Currently, I either install NetBSD, Debian or Void, depending on the use scenario.
Yeah, I don't think that's the best selling point for desktop use. For me it's having all my configs for all my devices in a single place, checked in git, with bits of config I can easily share between my different devices.
Hey, man. Some of us just suck at everything but reinstalling.
You clearly don't have a software hoarding problem
Easy install is not the only benefit. You also get fearless upgrades. When I upgrade my Nvidia driver and it inevitably exposes bugs in one of my apps, I can always jump back to the previous build version without uninstalling anything.
Damn... 8 years? I made it almost two years with tumbleweed on my work laptop.
I like mixing it up, trying different diatros and various programs. After awhile, a fresh install just feels nice...
Every few months or so? There is always that one distro that sounds cool and maybe it's better than what you are using atm. Yeah, sure. It's mostly a waste of time and I keep coming back to Arch after a few days, but without this drive I would not have ever tried Arch in the first place. So because of this I found my favorite distro, but I can also never be 100% sure it's the best distro. Pros and cons, I guess.
Or, they could learn Ansible and get 80% of the way, and be able to reproduce the result on more than one OS. 🥹
Nix is not something exclusive to NixOS, and people are already using it to make reproducible configs that work on more than one OS.
I'm even using Ansible in what I'm currently building with Nix, because it does one thing well that I need to do: distribute files and run commands on a lot of hosts at once.
That is, until a new Ansible version breaks playbooks again, or an OS is updated in a way that messes with you playbooks, or a package is removed from the playbook but not the installed system...
Ansible is good for ephemeral containers or VMs, but any more permanent system will eventually deviate from the set configuration.
I might just be basic but the only annoying part of reinstalling for me is setting up my browser again.
All hail Firefox Sync!🙌
I've used Firefox for over a decade but still wouldn't trust them to keep all my account info on their servers, Especially not nowadays.
I already started using KeypassXC to locally store my passwords, just importing bookmarks and add-ons I've left to do.
I think you can selfhost the sync server.
I only use Sync for extensions, history and bookmarks. I use an alternative pw manager for the same reason.
it's all in .mozilla.
Meanwhile me using Fedora with pretty much everything setup the way I want it out of the box:
Wow, you have sold me on installing Nix next. I'm a programmer and this sounds dreamy!
Stop threatening me with a good time!
Hint: :q!
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