I got started on NixOS on a whim really. I distro hopped every so often and like a month ago I wanted to try something different. Already used Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, etc but figured I'd give NixOS a shot.

At first I hated it and it just confused the hell out of me. Then when someone told me I should use flake for my config so I could through it in a repo it just clicked. Once you figure it out and "get it" it just becomes so easy. I'm still a noob at it but I absolutely love NixOS. It just makes everything so easy when you got everything in a flake with a config and home nix. Even backups are easy as you literally can just put it in your config to run. I even have it how where it'll toss out old generations after 10 days automatically.

Plus the fact I can just use stuff without actually installing it is awesome. as a Dev NixOS is brilliant for that.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Can you explain to me what a flake is? I've read the guides but I didn't really get it.

I'm using home-manager but that's about as complicated as I've gotten.

[–] hellmo_luciferrari@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I've wanted to give NixOS a shot, but I have very little reason to switch away from Arch. I have my install tailored to be exactly what I want. No fuss in maintaining it either.

[+] just_another_person@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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[–] hisao@ani.social 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s a horrible distro for trying to run your desktop.

Why? Do you know any other distro that lets you swap your default kernel to a number of real-time gaming-optimized kernels in few lines of configs at any moment without any risks? Also, just install toolbox/distrobox/homebrew into it for minor stuff that you don't mind being reproducible enough to justify bloating the config.

[–] Overspark@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This particular example isn't very good, just install multiple kernels (or compile one yourself) on your distro of choice and boot into the one you want with your bootloader of choice. Once set up you don't even have to change any configs any more, just use an interactive menu on boot. So even easier than NixOS? There are plenty of valid use-cases for Nix, this isn't one of them.

[–] hisao@ani.social 4 points 1 week ago

just install multiple kernels (or compile one yourself) on your distro of choice and boot into the one you want with your bootloader of choice

That's way more complicated than adding a single line of text in a single text file and also having guaranteed way back if anything goes wrong.

[–] rycee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Its not for everyone but I've been using NixOS as my desktop OS for nearly 10 years and I am honestly pretty satisfied with the experience.

[–] priapus@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

Thats just not true. Nix and NixOS are not the same thing. Nix is meant for CI/CD. NixOS is an OS designed for both desktop and server use. Why would there even be so many desktop environments and desktop software packages if it wasnt designed to be used on a desktop?

[–] hisao@ani.social -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

niche exotic distro nobody knows about

the only one of its kind based around the idea of config-driven reproducible immutable builds

Is NixOS Just Hype?

Pretty sure it's not "hype" at all, but if it was it wouldn't be "just hype".

[–] priapus@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It has 9k contributors and 20k stars. Just because you havent heard of it doesnt mean nobody has.

Also Guix is doing the exact same thing.