• QuizzaciousOtter@lemm.ee
    1·
    5 months ago

    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.

  • TheWordBotcher@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    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.

  • F04118F@feddit.nl
    0·
    5 months ago

    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

    • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
      1·
      5 months ago

      How does that work? Let’s say I’m on pop os developing a thing, how would I manage deps and dev envs with nix then? In a VM or what?

      I’m a Linux nerd, but I totally don’t get nix. Tried to install some nix package manager on my Debian based distro and it was completely broken (the nix thing, not my os)

      • F04118F@feddit.nl
        1·
        5 months ago

        I um… didn’t get started yet. But a colleague demoed it to my and it’s kind of between virtual environments and containers, if you’re familiar with Python.

        You write a Nix config and specify exactly which versions of which package you want to have. Reproducibility is the main selling point of Nix. Things don’t just break overnight because a dependency of a dependency of a dependency got upgraded. You can always go back to exactly what it was like before. Guaranteed. That’s pretty cool.

        Ok so you got that config, then you build and activate it, and it replaces your shell. You enter the Nix shell. You still have access to all your files and directories, but your Nix config controls exactly which versions of your tools you have. gcc, npm, python, maven, whatever you use.

        You can see why this makes people want to build an immutable OS.

        The main drawback of Nix is that it has a bit of a learning curve. Hence why I haven’t started yet. Maybe it’s time though.

  • Mia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    0·
    5 months ago

    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…

      • tatterdemalion@programming.dev
        1·
        5 months ago

        You should say “unstable channel”. It’s literally just a rolling release that pulls from the nixpkgs master branch. So it’s only as stable as it needs to be to pass the Hydra CI tests.

        And if you get to a working version, you can pin that as a Nix flake to avoid anything breaking until the next time you nix flake update.

      • Mia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        0·
        5 months ago

        Definitely more stable than Arch. Plus, you can easily roll back if something breaks, and you can choose which packages should use the unstable branch while keeping the overall system stable, which I find amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a breaking update, which I can’t say about Arch.

        The problem I have with Nix is that you can effectively forget about running random programs or GitHub projects. You either package everything the Nix way or nothing works. As a developer and someone who often likes to try stuff out, that’s really annoying. And Nix, the language, is ass, so is the whole build system. Nobody can convince me otherwise.

          • Mia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            1·
            5 months ago

            It’s not really the same thing though, those are filesystem snapshots, not package registry snapshots. Think of Nix generations as blueprints of how to construct your OS and environment, not the files themselves (though those are certainly required). I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but it’s a lot more powerful than what basically amounts to a backup.

  • hacktheegg@programming.dev
    0·
    5 months ago

    Tis fairly good, don’t like how badly it works with grub tho (which I refuse to change)

    This makes arch/nixos a difficult combo to set up

  • Malix@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    5 months ago

    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

    • Chef6652@lemmy.world
      1·
      5 months ago

      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 👌