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NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

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Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#3

Post by Firehawke »

Stampo00 wrote: post #2

I want to use NixOS so bad Or what Arch has become. But I want to believe

Whereas I just left Debian-based distros because I'm hitting that exact problem with backported patches not arriving in any reasonable length of time in many packages. There seems to be a real manpower problem over at Debian in terms of maintainers.

Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#5

Post by jegp »

Stampo00 wrote: post #2

I want to use NixOS so bad Or what Arch has become. But I want to believe

From personal experience, using NixOS saves me a lot of time compared to Debian based distros. The initial setup is painful, but after that you are in complete control. Don't need to update? Don't! I had desktop sessions running flawlessly for months without any interruptions. Never seen that before on other distros, really.

Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#6

Post by bubblethink »

Stampo00 wrote: post #2

I want to use NixOS so bad Or what Arch has become. But I want to believe

>I want to use NixOS so bad ... But I want to believe

It's an operating system, not a disney movie. Not sure what sort of redemption arc you are waiting for. If you are curious, try it. If not, then don't. What's all this business about believing ?

Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#7

Post by therein »

jegp wrote: post #5
Stampo00 wrote: post #2

I want to use NixOS so bad Or what Arch has become. But I want to believe

From personal experience, using NixOS saves me a lot of time compared to Debian based distros. The initial setup is painful, but after that you are in complete control. Don't need to update? Don't! I had desktop sessions running flawlessly for months without any interruptions. Never seen that before on other distros, really.

Yeah I had a 680+ day uptime on my NixOS workstation until "GPU fell off the bus".

Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#8

Post by anandsuresh »

Love to see more adoption of Nix and NixOS.

I started my Nix journey a little over a year ago, and I regret not having switched sooner. A package-manager that also ships an operating system that can be customized from the bootloader up, using a purely functional programming language is the perfect configuration management tool!

It does have some rough edges, and I did lose some hair figuring things out early on, but it has been getting better with each passing day. Pretty much the entirety of my setup at home is now built by Nix and runs NixOS, including my Macbook Air (runs NixOS on ZFS), and two Mac-Minis that PXE-boot a custom NixOS served by a Raspberry Pi 4 running a custom NixOS configuration that also acts as a firewall connecting wirlessly to my ISP's router. The Mac-Minis also double as build machines which makes for a pretty smooth experience when I'm building anything on my work laptop (a 2020 Macbook Pro running Big Sur) that I dock with my CinemaDisplay, which is wired thru an unmanaged switch to the rest.

So far I haven't missed any packages that I could not find in nixpkgs, or customize just the way I wanted to. The community is pretty responsive and quick to merge any pull requests for fixes/upgrades. I would whole-heartedly recommend switching to Nix/NixOS/Nixpkgs.

Re: NixOS and the Art of OS Configuration (2018)

#9

Post by trabant00 »

meribold wrote: post #4
Stampo00 wrote: post #2

I want to use NixOS so bad Or what Arch has become. But I want to believe

> Or what Arch has become. What has Arch become? I've been using it for 10 years and the only thing I can think of that has changed is the init system.

I was about to ask the same thing. I think I have more than 10 years and haven't noticed any significant change in Arch, it requires no additional work.
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