NixOS Linux

#1

Post by lemonspat » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

NixOS Linux
nixos.org

Re: NixOS Linux

#2

Post by pachico » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

Just to see if I understand, does this mean you might end up having dozens of libcurls?

Re: NixOS Linux

#3

Post by fooblat » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

I've been using linux based operating systems for 20+ years and I decided to give NixOS a try recently. I had read the install was "difficult" but I found it very straightforward.

The configuration system very easy to understand and work with. I think this is actually the perfect distro for a "one off" home server because configuration management is built in so it is easy to rebuild my server from the backup of a single file.

Re: NixOS Linux

#4

Post by indemnity » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

I tried to use nixOS as a desktop system.

Using a special command (nix-shell) whenever I needed to do development things (e.g. Rust builds) was not my idea of fun.

Some other things, like overriding GDM's monitors.xml file, were pretty much impossible to do.

Maybe it's better if you just use it as a base for servers / containers.

Re: NixOS Linux

#5

Post by colejohnson66 » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

pachico wrote: post #2

Just to see if I understand, does this mean you might end up having dozens of libcurls?

Is that any different that Docker?

Re: NixOS Linux

#6

Post by choward » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:05 PM UTC

pachico wrote: post #2

Just to see if I understand, does this mean you might end up having dozens of libcurls?

If any of software relies on different versions, yes. It beats not being able to use something because you can only have one version of a library shared.

Re: NixOS Linux

#7

Post by ReactiveJelly » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:05 PM UTC

pachico wrote: post #2

Just to see if I understand, does this mean you might end up having dozens of libcurls?

As an optional fun fact, from my Arch system:

- libcurl is 615,616 bytes

- curl itself is another 192,480 bytes

Not counting man pages.

Re: NixOS Linux

#8

Post by choward » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:06 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #5

pachico wrote: post #2

Just to see if I understand, does this mean you might end up having dozens of libcurls?

Is that any different that Docker?

It's better actually since you can share some libraries when possible.

Re: NixOS Linux

#9

Post by setheron » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:08 PM UTC

The big idea in Nix is the view that the filesystem is like mutable memory in a programming language.

You wouldn't give access to memory raw without any safeguards. (Typical package managers can just arbitrarily dump files or remove files)

It takes a structured approach. Laying over a graph database on top of your filesystem which is read-only typically.

This helps provide guarantees and also every application has its own hermetic sealed dependency closure.

Nix is truly revolutionary and it's getting steady adoption. Give it a read if you don't know about it. You can adopt it on any Linux distro without using the full NixOS.

I write a lot about it on my blog.

Re: NixOS Linux

#10

Post by nincompoo » Sun, Jan 10, 2021, 8:08 PM UTC

I use Void now and like not having systemd. Can I install Nix on my Void? Do I then just stop using the native package manager?

Or would it be better to install NixOS? Could I then choose not to use systemd? Would that be hard?

Is the idea that you can define your system in a file and reproduce it more or less automatically?

How does this compare to Guix?