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this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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linux4noobs
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I was told it's very difficult and has bad documentation. Funnily enough that's exactly the experience I have had with guix.
Compared to guix NixOS is significantly ahead. "difficult" is to each their own. For me, NixOS is the easiest to do certain things. But those things are what i use a computer for and might not match what you do.
As for docs - nothing beats Arch :)
I think I tried NixOS briefly a while ago. I might have a go eventually or install it in a VM to check it out.
Definitely start with a vm. If you run into troubles let me know. I have a YouTube channel where i post nix content regularly.
That said the docs are not as good as Arch. The best way is to read the
nixpkgssource. Which is a very high barrier to entry. Otoh, only one repo is required to completely see everything.https://youtu.be/pKVf9x29djs
It has terrible documentation, no doubt about it. However, depending on your setup requirements, the installation procedure can be quite acceptable. It should finally have a graphical installer.
If you're not doing anything complicated like programming, hosting your own services, or planning on using rare software that you yourself have to package, it can be a very low maintenance OS.
My single biggest tip: before installing something, check if it has an "option"
For example, if you want to use KDE as your desktop environment, you need the
services.xserver.desktopManager.plasma5.enableoption. Use the option search. It's often easier than listing the individual packages manually and writing their configuration manually.The reason for this is that nixos doesn't have "meta" packages. Those are packages that just contain other packages. Most package only has the absolute minimum it needs to be built - not run. The KDE desktop environment requires many packages to run.
Additionally, package configuration normally happens outside of the package in a declarative manner. You don't write
/etc/network.d/111_startup.sh. That's either in an optionenvironment.etc"network.d/111_startup.sh"or (making this up)networking.startupScriptswhich puts a value in toenvironment.etc"network.d/{script.name}.Do no be afraid to ask for help. The nix community is aware of the documentation disaster it has on its hands.
Yes, the nix foundation is slow and doesn't have its own wiki - no idea why.
My set-up actually is fairly complicated. I actually have a degree in CS and am looking for tech related jobs. I have decided to go a different direction for now but I intend to learn the nix package manager at some point. Partly because it comes included with my new OS (Bazzite/ublue), and partly because I hear it's useful and pays well in industry.