NixOS is my new daily driver after a hard start and many copy+pasta from Github Repos ^^
Well i do need to do a quick ol distro hop cos currently on manjaro and well im not particularly happy with it. I like debian headless on mer server so might jump to sonthing based on that, this graph isnt making nix look like a good choice tho pls enlighten me to the benefits
manjaro was terrible when I used it (several years ago), imo it is fundamentally broken. I would suggest trying a smoother arch install. I always recommend endeavoros because I had an effortless experience with it.
If you donβt already know the benefits itβs unlikely it solves a problem you have.
Even among its users many are using it because itβs cool rather than because they actually need it.
Itβs a declarative system, meaning you can describe how it should be setup (using a magic strings you have to look up online) and then it βsets up itselfβ according to the description.
Itβs normally something youβd use for mass and/or repetitive deployments.
Itβs usefulness for a single system is debatable, considering you can achieve very close to 100% of βreproducibilityβ anyway by copying /home and /etc and fetching a copy of the package list.
Where the prescriptive approach is supposed to help is when you attempt to reproduce the system a long time later, after things like config files and packages have changed. But it doesnβt help with /home, it hasnβt been tested over long intervals, and in fact nobody guarantees long term compatibility for Nix state.
Nix is not place that you want to go just for the hell of it.
If you want to be able to store your entire operating system config in a repo, and spread it to a bunch of other boxes, and have the ability to rollback to any point in your install history, itβs the beeβs knees.
But to do that, you need to rely on there massive community repository of apps understand their language, and be ready to fight with most uncommon packages that you might want. You canβt just install or upgrade apps anymore. Upgrading channels to get app updates as much less likely to go smoothly.
Overall for me, NixOS is a net positive but itβs not by that much. If I were going to go from scratch again Iβd probably just go back to Debian. But, sunk cost fallacy Iβm in it now and I need a good reason to get out of it.
