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NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

nixos.org

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Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#51

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

aliqot wrote: post #23
codedokode wrote: post #5

I might want to try some new Linux distribution so I wonder: what doesn't work in nix? What are its weaknesses? What about devices with non-free firmware?

If you just want someone to shoot you straight: Documentation and naming conventions for Nix are absolute shit across the board. This will get downvotes, and people will say I'm wrong, but I'm 100% right. Go see yourself, it's bad. Language is called Nix, OS is actually called Nix, package manager is called Nix, just the whole thing seems like it was written in 1 week by a squirrel with 12 hands and a sack of ritalin…

> naming conventions for Nix are absolute shit across the board

No, not really. They are not consistent for every part and not every package is up to date with everything but if you get the gist you can easily guess things. If things are really weird we can always rename them.

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#52

Post by chriswarbo »

throwup wrote: post #28
bfrog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of true, you can but it require a fhs environment setup

I wonder why Nix doesn't give every package a FHS env by default. In 2022 chroot and overlayfs should be available everywhere. Wouldn't that solve a ton of problems?

Nix has no concept of "package". Applications are defined as derivations, but so is everything else (I wouldn't want an entire FHS directory structure for, e.g., a single text file).

If you want an FHS, you can get one using a function like buildFHSUserEnv (that's defined in the Nixpkgs project; Nix itself doesn't know or care what FHS is; indeed, Nix will happily run on non-Linux platforms)

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#53

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

chriswarbo wrote: post #47
aliqot wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just want someone to shoot you straight: Documentation and naming conventions for Nix are absolute shit across the board. This will get downvotes, and people will say I'm wrong, but I'm 100% right. Go see yourself, it's bad. Language is called Nix, OS is actually called Nix, package manager is called Nix, just the whole thing seems like it was written in 1 week by a squirrel with 12 hands and a sack of ritalin…

> Language is called Nix Yep; that's a bummer. The manual calls it the "Nix expression language", and some people refer to it as "nixlang" (similar to Gophers saying "golang") > OS is actually called Nix Nope, it's always NixOS; 100% of the time. In fact, the naming confusion goes the other way in this case, since the whole project (Nix, NixOS, etc.) lives on the domain nixos.org, and the GitHub account NixOS! > pack…

> some people refer to it as "nixlang"

more commonly just nix language or you know it out of context

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#54

Post by madjam002 »

Asdrubalini wrote: post #17

My router (a VM with passed through network card) is currently running on NixOS, I’m really happy so far, it makes kernel patching (which in my case is required for the nic to work properly at 2500BASE-T) much easier than manually patching and building the kernel every time. It also gives me the guarantee that I will be able to rebuild the exact same host almost bit by bit in the future, in case of necessity, which i…

Yeah I used to use pfSense but hated having a load of config and firewall rules created manually, it all felt quite brittle.

Moved to NixOS almost 5 years ago now and haven’t looked back, my router config is in Git and I’m able to make changes with confidence.

Best part is making a change/installing an update and being able to rollback if I mess something up. I also use Nixus to push new configs which has a nifty feature where it will autorollback if you e.g make a config change that locks you out of SSH.

I also moved from ESXI to NixOS for a virtualisation host more recently and that has been great as these machines are inherently long lived so you can’t apply the “cattle not pets” mindset here, but I feel like I can make changes and install updates with confidence. It also helped when I migrated to a Threadripper build where there were some strange quirks which needed Linux kernel patches, it’s nice being able to do this declaratively and to store everything in a versioned Git repo.

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#55

Post by chriswarbo »

ngcc_hk wrote: post #16

Is it like docker? Anyway trying my hand on Kivy. Work for once for iOS and android undder macOS. Then never so far. Trying Gm even of macOS. No. May be start again with this and try to install Kivy again

> Is it like docker?

No. Docker is a way to execute processes (e.g. servers).

Nix is a way to define the contents of files (e.g. an OS filesystem).

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#56

Post by iopq »

stingraycharles wrote: post #21
codedokode wrote: post #5

I might want to try some new Linux distribution so I wonder: what doesn't work in nix? What are its weaknesses? What about devices with non-free firmware?

From my experience, any binary is going to need patching before it runs, because shared libraries are in weird paths. I especially had issues running Steam, but this was about 8 years ago — maybe the situation has improved now.

Steam still needs to be configured

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Steam

but it's just a few lines in your config and then it works

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#57

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

tomrod wrote: post #39
bsnnkv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That last sentence is so true. I'm all in on Nix and I couldn't elevator pitch it if my life depended on it.

Completely repeatable setup. Like Docker, but works.

Docker is not repeatable. If I try to build the same Dockerfile in 12 months then I likely do not get the same output and it wouldn't be surprising if it does not build at all.

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#58

Post by suprfnk »

SuperSandro2000 wrote: post #46
pca006132 wrote: post #34

My experience with NixOS: Package installation is usually just from the official channel, system options can usually be done with `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix` and home-manager. Major problems: installing niche proprietary software that you may have to package yourself, and fighting Nix for languages with package manager, e.g. Python, which frequently uses packages not in nixpkgs.

nixpkgs is already one of the largest package collections. There is a good chance your software is already included. The nix language itself is pretty straightforward and if you know haskell your should feel straight at home. You shouldn't use nixpkgs python packages as a replacement for your python development. That would also not work that great on other distros.

> nixpkgs is already one of the largest package collections. There is a good chance your software is already included.

Yes, but that still doesn't solve this:

> Major problems: installing niche proprietary software that you may have to package yourself

If some software _isn't_ packaged, it's a pain in the butt to get it running on NixOS. Either you have to create Nix derivations, which have a pretty steep learning curve, or you have to do some hackery patchelf business, which also isn't easy.

At least, as of 2018, when I last tried. Things could be better now.

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#59

Post by smoldesu »

lvncelot wrote: post #2

> Graphical installer I've recently installed NixOS on an old Thinkpad I got from work, and I was pleasantly surprised by the graphical installer. Even though NixOS is far from a beginner distro, removing friction in the initial installation process is a good thing.

It's very new. Just a year ago you still had to partition/install everything by hand, which was a pain but still worth doing.

Re: NixOS 22.11 “Raccoon”

#60

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

bsnnkv wrote: post #26
aliqot wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just want someone to shoot you straight: Documentation and naming conventions for Nix are absolute shit across the board. This will get downvotes, and people will say I'm wrong, but I'm 100% right. Go see yourself, it's bad. Language is called Nix, OS is actually called Nix, package manager is called Nix, just the whole thing seems like it was written in 1 week by a squirrel with 12 hands and a sack of ritalin…

That last sentence is so true. I'm all in on Nix and I couldn't elevator pitch it if my life depended on it.

NixOS is a reproducible, customizable, programmable and adaptable Linux distribution.
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