I'd been hearing a lot about NixOS so I did a VM install. It wanted me to setup my own partitions manually without even giving preset sane defaults like I was back in 1994 installing Slackware.
Nope. My OS is a tool, not a lifestyle.
I use Arch btw
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I'd been hearing a lot about NixOS so I did a VM install. It wanted me to setup my own partitions manually without even giving preset sane defaults like I was back in 1994 installing Slackware.
Nope. My OS is a tool, not a lifestyle.
There is a Gnome/KDE installer too now ;)
This is the opposite of me. I always get nervous when I don't have precise control over how the disk layout looks. I explicitly decided for the non-graphical installer when I first downloaded NixOS
My OS is also a tool!
Those jerk OSs and their bullying!
The obvious sane default is 1 partition covering the whole disk, + EFI system partition. What's there to offer...
Encryption? Also you're assuming there's only one block device...
assuming the person before did not just mean partitioning, but also all other storage-related tasks
I mean, if we're talking sane you shouldn't need more than one partition.
I need to compile my kernel... by hand with tools from beige-age computing.
Sounds like you haven't done it in a while. It has calamares installer now.
Slackware still does that in 2024.
How long ago did you try? You should try again, I did not have this experience setting up with the graphical installer a few weeks ago.
Yes. And I feel sad because I haven't been excited on any other OS for years after learning NixOS. I used to be excited about playing with things like FreeBSD, but now they all feel like something's missing...
Not for everybody, but as a software engineer nix/nixos is blessing.
Its especially annoying for me because i wanna go back to something that "just works" but i miss the nix features. I like declaring my system but managing packages declaratively is just such a pain. I just wanna do apt-get install package its just easier i dont want to rebuild my whole ass system. Something i found that may work is using nix for the system and then distrobox for packages. Yall think thats something that would work well?
Can't you just do the package install via nix-env rather than the config file
NixOS is cool, the whole Linux configuration in one file is convenient but I already found my home and comfort place that's Arch btw don't think I switch to other distro anytime soon
Just to clarify, I wouldn't recommend putting everything in a single file, but rather modularize the configuration.
I also came from Arch, but have since abandoned it, and I don't think I want to use distributions for myself that use the the classic imperative concept. One you get a better understanding of it, it makes so much more sense.
As someone who has never tried Linux, this meme has done more to make me want to give it a try than anything else Linux users have thrown at me so far. The fox is very convincing. I might step into the back of an unmarked van if it asked me to.
I'm running openSUSE because I like lizards.
NixOS is probably a bit more confusing than most Linux distros, but it has a huge amount of advantages too. It has very up to date software and probably never has dependency issues.
That's par for the course for me. I'm the type that'll start a video game on the hardest difficulty for a challenge and then my pride won't let me lower the difficulty so I just quit under the guise of disliking it.
Foxes are like that though.
They look cute and cuddly... The trustworthy kind, then they bite your hand off and laugh at you.
Don't listen to him! Just start using Nix to manage dependencies and dev environments for your projects but keep your OS the same until you are really good at Nix
Yeah, you want to sniff nix first before you mainline nixos.
Nah, best way to learn is to fuck your shit up until you fucked it back into a usable state
I actually got NixOS after the latest time I tried it. But I also got that I don't want it, Arch is much simpler in all the good ways.
And perhaps something like https://github.com/kiviktnm/decman can some day give us part of Nix's power without going all-in with the functional declarative thingamadoodle.
Fuck yes, I would follow that fox wherever needed!
as a fox myself, i would not recommend it.
I mean, it's like a fucking drug. The learning curve is steep AF but past some point, when it starts making sense, it's just incredible. I'm currently moving my whole setup to NixOS and I'm in love.
Even when using in a basic way, I think it has one very tangible advantage: the fact that you can "compartmentalize" different aspects of your configuration.
Let's say I set up a specific web service that I want to put behind a reverse proxy, and it uses a specific folder that doesn't exist yet, like Navidrome which is a web-based audio player. It requires a set of adjustments of different system parts. My nix file for it looks like this:
{ config, ... }:
let
domain = "music." + toString config.networking.domain;
in
{
services.navidrome = {
enable = true;
settings = {
Address = "127.0.0.1";
Port = 4533;
MusicFolder = "/srv/music";
BaseUrl = "https://" + domain;
EnableSharing = true;
Prometheus.Enabled = true;
LogLevel = "debug";
ReverseProxyWhitelist = "127.0.0.1/32";
};
};
services.nginx = {
upstreams = {
navidrome = {
servers = {
"127.0.0.1:${toString config.services.navidrome.settings.Port}" = {};
};
};
};
};
services.nginx.virtualHosts."${domain}" = {
onlySSL = true;
useACMEHost = config.networking.domain;
extraConfig = ''
include ${./authelia/server.conf};
'';
locations."/" = {
proxyPass = "http://navidrome";
recommendedProxySettings = false;
extraConfig = ''
include ${./authelia/proxy.conf};
include ${./authelia/location.conf};
'';
};
};
systemd.tmpfiles.settings."navidrome-music-dir"."${toString config.services.navidrome.settings.MusicFolder}" = {
d = {
user = "laser";
mode = "0755";
};
};
systemd.services.navidrome.serviceConfig.BindReadOnlyPaths = ["/run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf"];
security.acme.certs."${config.networking.domain}".extraDomainNames = [ "${domain}" ];
}
All settings related to the service are contained in a single file. Don't want it anymore? Comment it out from my main configuration (or whereever it's imported from) and most traces of it are gone, the exception being the folder that was created using systemd.tmpfiles
. No manually deleting the link from sites-available or editing the list of domains for my certificate. The next generation will look like the service never existed.
And in my configuration, at least the port could be changed and everything would still work – I guess there is room for improvement, but this does what I want pretty well.
Alternative text: Firefox overcoming Chrome
So, I'm an arch-btwistan, what does nixos do for a gamer/youtuber/low-tier-wannabe-musician? Legit asking, because I really don't know what makes nixos tick, and the (very little) I've read doesn't really explain the benefits of it
Very well built patches and ways to share them. This is a good thing for gaming as we can try bleeding edge like Arch. But without having to rely on AUR or scripts to copy locally. Thanks to Nix Flakes you simply reference the flake someone shared (after double checking what is in it) and rebuild a NixOS derivation and voila, patch installed. I installed a complete SteamOS in 1 minute with this, reboot and everything works. Even with your locally signed in Steam account 👌
nothing imo, it's main benefit is making reproducible environments, imagine you need 10 machines to have the exact same things running on it, setting up each one would be a PITA and keeping them the same is near impossible, nixos solves that problem.
it's not gonna do anything for you, most people just want a working OS system on your PC so that you can do the things you need to do, if you have that, there is no reason to be fucking around with nixos.
Everything about your OS is defined in a config files and can be rebuilt. You break something you don't need to do a complete reinstall if you can't figure it out. Just rebuild the last working configuration. Sharing builds with your friends is easier.
For gaming getting your graphics card going is much simpler. I never had steam and proton games run as well as they do with they nixos defaults
Most definietly, I have my entire homelab setup in nix as well as laptop/desktop. Is a hell of a lot easier and more reliable than the Kubernetes setup it replaced....
I tried it, and while I was really excited about its proposition, it felt like at times any prior knowledge of Linux was a bit wasted. I also had some significant problems with needing to pin packages.
I don't doubt that it's a great option for many, if you've got the time to learn it. I'm finding myself in the position where I stick my flag to one distro and keep it there for as long as it doesn't piss me off.
Guix is amazing.
i nuked my nixos install twice to install guix and twice I went back to my nix setup. GuixSD is missing a certain polish to it. It feels like it's on the way there but probably not yet...
the second time was just last week, after setup on sway, I installed flatpak apps and tried setting up nix-env for packages, some XDG_DATA_DIR fucked up and I couldn't even see the installed packages or start them from a terminal
servers are also slow and rebuilding is a fucking pain
Last I heard they were having this huge governance drama. They fix that yet? Or....
Have tried, had bad experience trying to get damn libs to work with clang, gave up and went back to Arch
yes, and its best
Good idea, bad DSL and toxic community.
Yes, it's the most stable yet infuriating experience I've ever had with Linux. I'm currently using it, but I don't know for how much longer...
Is this a greek culinary specialty? "You have to try the Nixos, it melts in the mouth!"