Hi everyone!

I saw that NixOS is getting popularity recently. I really have no idea why and how this OS works. Can you guys help me understanding all of this ?

Thanks !

  • Tilted@programming.dev
    11·
    2 years ago

    I used NixOS for a couple of years. My experience is like this:

    1. It is a rolling release (mostly)
    2. You write a declarative configuration for your system, e.g., my config will say I want Neovim with certain plugins, and I can also include my Neovim configuration
    3. It is stable, and when it breaks it is easy to go back
    4. Packages are mostly bleeding edge
      • Tilted@programming.dev
        3·
        2 years ago

        Yes absolutely. It is really great. It is also a source of frustration, e.g., missing configuration options, non-obvious options and so on. Overall it works well.

      • Sr Estegosaurio@lemmy.ml
        1·
        2 years ago

        You can even define configurations for different systems/hosts/users from a single place. I’ev atomized my config and I can reuse lots of parts for my different machines. Also my user config is nearly identical (except hardware specific things).

    • priapus
      3·
      2 years ago

      Important to note that NixOS has both a rolling release and point release version.

    • Atemu@lemmy.ml
      3·
      2 years ago

      Note that there’s both the rolling unstable channel and a bi-annual stable release channel.

    • SirNuke@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      Are you still using it and happy with it? I’ve been increasingly using single purpose dev VMs in a server, and a declarative configuration system would make the process of spinning them up faster and more robust. My current shell script system is clunky, and I’ve been looking at Ansible.

      • Tilted@programming.dev
        3·
        2 years ago

        Not using it anymore. Although I’m thinking about going back to it. The NixOS learning curve is a bit more steep than most other distros.

          • Tilted@programming.dev
            1·
            2 years ago
            1. Some level of frustration with the nix language and the configuration
            2. Wanting to try various obscure Python packages

            Nothing too major. Just already knowing how to make things work in other distros vs investing more time into learning to do it the NixOS way.