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Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

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Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#51

Post by Kiboneu »

suchar wrote: post #48

I think NixOS would benefit from easily accessible collection of opinionated modules/profiles/configurations with minimal set of options. Something like gnome-desktop / sway-desktop / etc. Gnome actually does pretty good job here. The point is: currently my NixOS and Home Manager configurations have over 2k LOC total. When you search for configurations on GitHub/Google you are likely to find complex ones. For example…

Yes, that's how I learned nixos -- moderately on the sparse documentation, highly on other people's code. I was shy on the #nixos channel.

Now I have a working setup which spans all of my computers and servers (I also have autodeployment scripts for aws and netboot). I use the devos flake as a template, check this out: https://github.com/divnix/devos

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#52

Post by lillecarl »

depressedpanda wrote: post #36
lillecarl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Windows VM on a NixOS host for gaming, was really quite convenient to set it up, I set it up on a separate drive to be able to boot native too but I ended up never really doing it, so I will reconfigure my 2 drives as a Zraid and have windows on a Zvol instead. NVIDIA works great, but if I were to buy new hardware I'd go AMD (maybe Intel when the time comes)

> I have a Windows VM on a NixOS host for gaming, was really quite convenient to set it up, I set it up on a separate drive to be able to boot native too I've been planning on doing exactly this, but haven't had the time to figure out the best way of going about it. Is there a good guide/write up you'd recommend? (I already have a Windows 10 install on a separate SSD, but I rarely boot it because I can't stand the OS…

So first I did this I did it on manjaro using this archwiki article: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF

When I moved to NixOS I just did a normal NixOS install and applied the same parameters to kernel boot as before and passed the GPU through.

I was using looking-glass at first, but my computer is too slow and crappy (memory bandwidth seems to choke) to run 144fps in overwatch.

You just pass the entire block device into the VM if you wanna keep your setup, or pass it through with as PCIE if it's an NVMe device.

I thought it'd be hard, but you'll be up and running in a day

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#53

Post by suchar »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

What a coincidence. I was just asking about NixOS on Mastodon. Reposting (I'm on a mobile, little time to type): " a question on dev environment isolation. Is either #NixOS or #GUIX usable as an OS for day-to-day use (coding, browsing, occasional gaming)? Or is it better to just use their respective package managers on top of regular Linux? Also, anyone here doing desktop #virtualization? Is there a sense of running…

Over the years, I tested multiple options, and currently, I'm using NixOS declarative containers. It requires more work to create a new environment than with nix-shell, but in my experience, this is not a bottleneck. With some setup, you can even run graphical applications inside containers. I've written more about this and other approaches on my blog: https://msucharski.eu/posts/application-isolation-nixos-cont... if you are interested. It is pretty specific to my needs, so it may not work for you.

Regarding the Windows: after playing with GPU-passthrough, I came back to dual-boot. It is more reliable because you are less likely to run into some hardware quirk.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#54

Post by throwaway894345 »

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #38
throwaway894345 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t used full-on NixOS yet, but I’ve used the Nix package manager quite a lot, and literally all of my forays have been miserable for a variety of different reasons. To be clear, I love what Nix aspires to be, but it doesn’t deliver on its promises IMO. As a package author, the Nix language has lots of rough edges, it’s absurdly tedious to figure out how to call various functions (what type of argument does it…

>So I don’t hate Nix, but I do have a lot of constructive criticism. Why not write a blog post? Probably some of those issues are known but no one works on them, so a reminder isn't bad. And for those that aren't, maybe someone picks it up and tries to fix it.

That's not a bad idea. I'll toss that on the queue.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#55

Post by TeMPOraL »

catern wrote: post #50
TeMPOraL wrote: post #9

What a coincidence. I was just asking about NixOS on Mastodon. Reposting (I'm on a mobile, little time to type): " a question on dev environment isolation. Is either #NixOS or #GUIX usable as an OS for day-to-day use (coding, browsing, occasional gaming)? Or is it better to just use their respective package managers on top of regular Linux? Also, anyone here doing desktop #virtualization? Is there a sense of running…

You may already realize this, but you don't need to run a VM per project if you're using Nix; Nix lets you have as many self-contained development environments as you like, all on one machine without VMs or containers.

That was my understanding, but I wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#56

Post by tarkin2 »

jbverschoor wrote: post #40

Better skip the "non-technical": Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for technical users through settings / GUI

I should try to look at the documentation again. But apart from the using the package manager, the rest of the documentation submerged you in a deep theoretical understanding of nix, going deeper and deeper, until the only thing that made sense anymore was the respect you gained from the technies who went further and somehow managed to use nix.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#57

Post by kaba0 »

Zababa wrote: post #45
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #3

Looking at the GUI, I have no idea what it does. I'm guessing that you actually need to know Nix to be able to use it, which kinda defeats the "usable for non-technical users" goal. I can see the value of it, if I ever learn Nix, and want a quick way to make modifications without having to google every possibilities.

> I'm guessing that you actually need to know Nix to be able to use it, which kinda defeats the "usable for non-technical users" goal. I don't think that's true. Excel is usable by non-technical users. Part of it is due to the GUI, part of it is due to the easy packaging. But you still need to know spreadsheets to use it. This project does the same for Nix.

Is it? There would not be several courses on it otherwise.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#58

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #25

A lot of odd Nix hate in here, or at least extreme dislike. NixOS is so very usable. There are a lot of foot-guns but that's true of Linux systems. It takes some time to get comfortable with all the different ways to configure stuff. There's a new language, a new build system, a new Linux distribution. I've spent very little time relative to say, figuring out dpkg or systemd, or learning Bash or C or Perl, or learnin…

I have no opinion about NixOS but every time I read someone touting its merits I feel like I live in a parallel universe. NixOS seems to solve problems I never had at extreme costs to its general usability.

I don’t care that I can rebuilt a computer identical to mine in minutes. I don’t change computer often enough for it to matter and the tweaking I do is minimal because frankly tweaking configuration is not fun and feel like a gigantic waste of time. Same things for reproducible builds, I like them as a developer for the things I work on because they make things easier to manage and debug. I couldn’t care less as a user. I just want things to work.

I guess it could make sense for servers as an alternative to provisioning tools but then it seems to me like it’s competing with docker and kubernetes and I have never seen a convincing argument about why it would be better.

I think that’s why you see a lot of things you view as dislike. Plainly speaking I think most people don’t see the point.

Re: Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

#59

Post by m45t3r »

tinco wrote: post #47
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #25

A lot of odd Nix hate in here, or at least extreme dislike. NixOS is so very usable. There are a lot of foot-guns but that's true of Linux systems. It takes some time to get comfortable with all the different ways to configure stuff. There's a new language, a new build system, a new Linux distribution. I've spent very little time relative to say, figuring out dpkg or systemd, or learning Bash or C or Perl, or learnin…

Crazy thing about NixOS is that it's so good, all the bad parts can be excused. I like to go on forums and complain about how the Nix configuration language is horrible, and there's not much documentation on how to get general things done. But that said, I'm still running NixOS on my servers. And no way that I'd ever go back to old fashioned provisioning scripts like Ansible. Just yesterday I had a problem upgrading…

> Crazy thing about NixOS is that it's so good, all the bad parts can be excused. I like to go on forums and complain about how the Nix configuration language is horrible, and there's not much documentation on how to get general things done.

I don't think it is fair to say that Nix as a programming language is horrible, IMO, as a DSL it is pretty good and fits the domain well.

It is a strange language at first and it takes some time to learn all its quirks. Also, it lacks better tooling, things like LSP for example (there is one but it is slow and limited last time I tried). But just claiming the language is "horrible" is really unfair.

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