Hi everyone!

I saw that NixOS is getting popularity recently. I really have no idea why and how this OS works. Can you guys help me understanding all of this ?

Thanks !

  • featherfurl@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    Here’s the straightforward version of why I use it:

    1. The entire state of your operating system is defined in a config file, and changes are made by changing the config file. This makes it super easy to reproduce your exact system many times and to know where all the many different configuration elements that describe your system are located.

    2. Updates are applied atomically, so you don’t have to worry about interrupting the update process and if it fails, the previous state of your system is still bootable. By default every time you change something, you get another option in the boot menu to roll back to.

    3. Making container-like sub systems is super easy when you’re familiar with nix, so you can have as many different enclaves as you like for different software versions, development environments, desktop setups, whatever without taking a performance hit. Old versions of stuff are very accessible without breaking your new stuff.

    4. The package manager has a lot of software and accessing nonfree stuff is straightforward. Guix looks rad, but nix ended up being the more practical compromise for my usecase. I didn’t want to have to package a heap of software the moment I made the switch.

  • Tilted@programming.dev
    1·
    1 year ago

    I used NixOS for a couple of years. My experience is like this:

    1. It is a rolling release (mostly)
    2. You write a declarative configuration for your system, e.g., my config will say I want Neovim with certain plugins, and I can also include my Neovim configuration
    3. It is stable, and when it breaks it is easy to go back
    4. Packages are mostly bleeding edge
    • Atemu@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      To get it out of the way first: There are no financial issues. There are more than enough funds to continue operations as they are for a sufficiently long time.

      What is actually happening is that a long time sponsor has indicated that they (understandably) no longer want to foot the huge bill of hosting the entire archive of binary caches ($9000/mo). Finding a more sustainable setup is what the community is currently concerned with.
      There is no risk of operations shutting down any time soon, the NixOS foundation has funds set aside to continue even this unsustainable setup for at least a year. We just want to be more efficient with our and others resources going forwards.

      That’s what all this you might have heard of is about.

      Btw, even if the binary cache were to go poof, we don’t technically need it. NixOS is a source-based distro like Gentoo and source hosting is not a concern. The binary cache is immensely helpful though which is why we’d obviously prefer to keep it.

        • Atemu@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yes, AWS gracefully sponsored 12 months of our S3 bill which gives us even more time to enact change.

          That’s just the short term resolution though, the Nix community is still looking into more sustainable long-term solutions.

          • root@precious.net
            1·
            1 year ago

            $9,000/mo? Have you considered not using the most ridiculously expensive method possible?

            • Atemu@lemmy.ml
              1·
              1 year ago

              the Nix community is still looking into more sustainable long-term solutions.

            • root@precious.net
              1·
              1 year ago

              Thinking about this further…

              I can purchase 10GE fiber, at home, for $299/mo.

              I can purchase a solid 16 bay Supermixro server for around $5k

              16TB drives are $168. There’s $3,700 left so let’s buy 21 drives (336TB, 235TB usable under raidz3 zfs). We’ll leave that last $170 for … electricity.

              Leasing all of this from a regular hosting provider woul be much more cost effective. I work for one, what the heck are you doing man?

  • moldyringwald@kbin.social
    0·
    1 year ago

    It’s insanely stable but you have to have a lot of linux/programming knowledge to do even the simplest things like installing/updating your software or making little tweaks. I played with it for hours the other day and I’m just too dumb to figure it out lol I think it’s just a super stable highly customizable distro for power users and a lot of people like that. If you can get over the learning curve it’s a pretty powerful and unique os

    • RosalynKirk@kbin.social
      0·
      1 year ago

      you have to have a lot of linux/programming knowledge to do even the simplest things like installing/updating your software

      So, pretty much like any other distro

        • RosalynKirk@kbin.social
          01·
          1 year ago

          Weird, every distro I’ve tried either has no management, or doesn’t work. Just spins around loading. “Uninstalling” packages does nothing but remove them from the package manager.

  • Herbstzeitlose@feddit.de
    0·
    1 year ago

    Because it’s the latest Cool Nerd Thing™ like Arch before it, and Gentoo before that. Most of the people raving about it probably don’t have much use for its features.

    • IDe@lemmy.one
      1·
      1 year ago

      The features themselves are very useful for basically any user. Whether they are worth the non-standardness and issues that come with it is another question.

  • joneskind@lemmy.world
    01·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know NixOS. My Linux machine runs Pop_OS and Manjaro.

    What are the pros and cons of NixOS ?