this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I am using NixOS and have used Arch before. Its great. No dependency hell, superb config management (with home manager) and builtin rollbacks. But the nix language is somewhat arcane. Error messages are only somewhat helpful and docs are really lacking. NixOS also uses quite the amount of disk space in its store. Would only recommend NixOS if youre a resourceful programmer (or not)
PS. Ive never had arch break any drivers on me, or any upgrade failing (unless a package itself is borked, but they usually put out posts for this). But my systems all amd, ymmv
Oh yeah I use nvidia so it’s pretty unsurprising. How much coding is required? I know how to code so it’s not a very big deal but I’d like to have an idea.
I wouldn’t call it coding. It’s more about writing configurations. You have to provide a list of packages you need and some configuration for them like configuring default desktop environment. I recommend searching for dotfiles repos with configuration.nix on github to get an idea.
As someone elase said, it's not really coding but more like writing a configuration. If you need an example (I'm using AMD so there will be some changes required) you can check out my own config at https://gitlab.com/theshatterstone/nix-conf
Edit: Also, the note on shebangs applies to all scripts within NixOS.
Thank you so much for your example, I'm new to NixOS coming from arch and these are all very helpful.
nvidia-open-dkms usually doesn't break when updating.
Well something broke ¯\(ツ)/¯