this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
1092 points (96.7% liked)
linuxmemes
21281 readers
307 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
- These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudo in Windows.
- No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't fork-bomb your computer.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
oh no it's time again...
I have nix on a VM where I am tuning a config. It seems like a total pain in the ass to have to get everything set up using their scripting language. Things you just take for granted with a normal distro now require you to know the arcane language of Nix to get running.
I can absolutely see the advantage of it though. I would love nothing more than to take my current popOS install, settings, configs, etc and be able to port that literally anywhere.
I mean, I use NixOS daily, and aside from installing the occasional package or setting up some dot files, I don’t really touch my Nix config. NixOS was my first daily driver Linux distro and it has a lot of features that I probably take for granted. Early on, I felt like switching from GNOME to KDE. Two lines. Later on installed Hyprland, no problem, then switched to XMonad(had some Wayland issues) and it was stupidly painless.
Sure, Nix has its “fuck you” moments too, but those are usually never anything truly system-breaking, and can be fixed after an hour or two of Discord support chats. In my eyes, the benefits of Nix definitely outweigh the flaws. Do I wish it was a slightly more sane language? Perhaps. But it’s really when you start using it that you learn to appreciate everything you get. Seriously, I much prefer editing a couple of lines in a config file to pasting commands off the Internet in hopes to achieve what I’m looking for.
NixOS is, imho, the best Linux distro for programmers or anyone with a decent understanding of Linux (obviously not for computer noobs, and that’s totally fine).
Wow first Linux distro, not bad, it's not particularly beginner friendly (you'll have to know how linux works and learn all the Nix related stuff), for me it's the last distro though^^
I’d had a decent understanding of Linux going in, tbf. Mostly from hanging out on Discord with tons of Linux users. My Nix system is still quite young (a little over 2 months old), but it’s great.
Getting off the ground was kinda hard though. Luckily, I’ve been using flakes from the very beginning and always setup my dot files with home manager, so I’ve kept the system nice and reproducible.
For those interested, here’s my dot files.
It's not for everyone. I think it's almost a requirement to be a programmer, and to be familiar with functional programming. It also has quite a few (necessary?) quirks/magic (module system, overlays, typing, config overrides etc.).
Actually one of my colleagues just switched from Pop OS! since System76 put all focus into their new desktop environment (while the current distro is barely maintained), which will be available on NixOS too, when it's ready (which is his plan to use, and mine too).
As long as you arent doing anything to advanced nix is basically only a configuration languages. You probably have to make heavy use of the option search to know where and what to configure
I didn't even know the option search existed. I just asked ChatGPT and it just tells me the option I need.
ChatGPT is not yet really good for Nix, probably because the training set consists of not that much nix yet. So yeah browsing in nixpkgs and either the options or package search is the way to go IMO.
I tried NixOS in a VM with 2GB memory and the package manager OOM'd when searching for a package...stayed with Tumbleweed on my metal.
... but if you do it starts here https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/prologue/foreword.html
I had a lot of fun few years ago.
Please, always use a dedicated hard drive to tinker with LFS, never ever try anything on a machine that's suppose to be used for work or do anything else. You'll think this is common sense, but it's anything but. LFS is involved, complex and takes a significant chunk of time. Make sure you don't need that machine you're tinkering on.
I feel personally offended by this
This is a very accurate comment. I do like this every damn time. It has been years now lol!