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Nix or Gentoo (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 6 months ago by Kasane_Teto@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
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[-] udon@lemmy.world 14 points 6 months ago

For everyone who doesn't have several different systems to maintain, I find the advantages of nixOS to be marginal. Sure, you can argue about atomicity and all, but honestly I don't remember ever running into a serious problem with debian either. The huge package repo is nice, but I rarely encounter an app I can't get through apt, flatpak, or as an appimage.

At the same time, nix also has various downsides. Documentation sucks. There are two main ways to manage the system, they both pretend to be the better one, and it's super hard to even get started. That's not an issue with the technology, but just a lack of priority. Guix is much better on that end (but also comes with the same marginal advantages).

On the other hand, debian has a stable community, with proper processes, democratic structures etc.

This is a nice, kind of old presentation from debconf, where people discussed nix and how this could be useful in a debian context as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGrcLEweglg

So, if you FOMO, don't worry. Debian and other options have this on the radar and have their ways to adapt (even if slowly)

[-] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Personally I’ve found the transition to be much more than marginal. Systems are defined not by the state of the machine itself but by the config describing it which is much more transparent and manageable. Non-declarative systems are great if you’re just running small services, are changing and experimenting a lot. Or just don’t can’t if your system goes down or bloats over the year. Declarative systems save you whole lot of management headaches especially if you are working with others, or aren’t constantly reviewing your old work.

[-] udon@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Except that things change as well in (or rather "around") declarative systems, and you have to update your config files as well. That's because the underlying software changes, and it has nothing to do with whether your system is declarative or not. You just need to put in the work to update your configs at a different point in time.

[-] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 months ago

Nixos has been extremely easy to get working for most stuff. If you stray off the trail at all, it gets complicated. Possible! But complicated for my little brain.

[-] unrealMinotaur@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

The problem is, no one on Nix is going to stay on the trail. We are all there since we left it long ago.

[-] Johanno@feddit.org 3 points 6 months ago

Development seems to be a bit of bite in the ass.

Intellij does have a package but for some reason plugins use often some random binaries and those do not work well with nixos.

Also getting always the right dependencies for the current project was for me difficult to learn.

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

For my dev environment I’ve had great success combining home-manager and their integration with

https://mise.jdx.dev/

Sure, it doesn’t quite fit the nix philosophy perfectly, but everything is still in my home.nix file and my home directory, and and I can swap tool versions on the fly and direct IntelliJ to their locations pretty easily

[-] sunstoned@lemmus.org 1 points 6 months ago

Embrace the --impure

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, a base setup that works is pretty easy. It's after that where it gets tedious. To me it sounds nice in theory, but I don't think it's my cup of tea.

[-] jimmy90@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

still weeks ahead of the gentoo user

[-] w3ird_sloth@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

How about installing nix on Gentoo?

[-] paequ2@lemmy.today 7 points 6 months ago

Guix!

[-] mrh@mander.xyz 5 points 6 months ago

[-] TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 7 points 6 months ago

Real masochists: CubeOS

For Steam games.

[-] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 5 points 6 months ago

Who hurt you?

[-] alecsargent@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Linux From Scratch says hello

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago
[-] alecsargent@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago

I just read your comment without realizing my keyboard's autocorrect mistake and was super confused. lmao.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I was afraid of that. Glad you figured it out! Maybe I should’ve quoted it…

Fond memories of Linux From Scratch, here.

[-] drath@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I am seriously considering switching to either Gentoo or 9front...

[-] paequ2@lemmy.today 3 points 6 months ago

Switch to 9front, 9front, 9front!

[-] drath@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Damn, it looks like everyone whom I told about this just wants to see me suffer. Alrighty then, see ya in... sometime. The journey sure looks rough, given that my hardware is barely supported by linux, nevermind an experimental OS from the 90s...

[-] paequ2@lemmy.today 1 points 6 months ago

I've always liked the idea of running Plan 9. I haven't had the courage to try it out though.

[-] jobbies@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago

You forgot secret option 3 - I use arch btw

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

Same masochism that made me a programmer...

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

learning hurts sometimes but it's ultimatly a good thing.

[-] TarantulaFudge@piefed.zip 1 points 6 months ago

Gentoo is awesome, especially if you are a developer. Every toolchain at your fingertips. Easy full stack debugging!

[-] hmmm@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

Do a better on Linux from Scratch

this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
91 points (97.9% liked)

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