this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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Operating Systems
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Does NixOS count? I've been using it for a few months now and love it.
Care to tell me a bit about it?
Yeah! Nix is a declarative, reproducible operating system; so instead of changing configuration files for each service (wayland, ssh, etc.) you have an OS-level configuration file that configures and deploys all services. If the configuration works once, each time you apply the configuration (to any computer) it will work in exactly the same way again. Changing this configuration file creates a new "generation" of the operating system, and you can switch seamlessly between generations -- so if your wayland changes brick your system, it's really easy to roll back. It's also really easy to test things and roll forward.
The downside is that this configuration file comes with a lot of syntatical magic that requires reading a ton of source code. You also have to learn the Nix programming language, which is relatively simple by itself; but the way it interacts with your servers can be really opaque.
If you're a programmer or really excited by the idea of a declarative, reproducible operating system, you will seriously love it. If you're more of a Linux enthusiast... not so much.