NixOS

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NixOS is a Linux distribution built on top of the Nix package manager. Its declarative configuration allows reliable system upgrades via several official channels of stability and size.

This community discusses NixOS, Nix, and everything related.

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Can someone explain NixOS to me like I'm absolutely clueless? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by KISSmyOS@lemmy.world to c/nixos@infosec.pub

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I've been hearing a lot about it lately and I'm intrigued, but also utterly confused.

Is this a Linux distro I'd install on bare metal because it offers a new way of package management that addresses the issues other distros have?
Is it something I install in the distro I currently use?
How does it work and what does it do?

I've tried to read https://nixos.org/guides/how-nix-works but the first sentence is

"Nix is a purely functional package manager. This means that it treats packages like values in purely functional programming languages such as Haskell"

and that's where it lost me. Thanks for helping me understand!

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[–] dai@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Compatibility for games will be the same under Nix as they are Debian, Ubuntu or Arch. If your using steam just toggle compatibility and you'll be set for most titles under that launcher. I've ditched windows in favour of Linux, jumped between Debian, Manjaro and settled with nix.

Nix has been around for 20+ years now, it's quite mature at this stage, but has lots of features under development.

For me, nix is a reproducible environment, the same code for my install will build the same working system with the same configuration for applications even if a drive goes bad.

My sensitive data is stored elsewhere, but my keybinds, themes and wallpapers, colour schemes for applications and even settings in those applications will be the same on a fresh install (so long as I've defined them 😅)

Majority of my config is identical between different machines, lots of reused config with minimal machine specific config.