I’ve been using Arch Linux for 3 years now, both on my laptop and my PC. Recently, due to natural disasters where I live (don’t worry, I’m fine), university lessons were canceled, so I had plenty of time to do a fresh Linux install. This time, instead of Arch Linux, I decided I wanted to try NixOS. I have to say, I really like it.
Hesitation
I hate to admit it, but I didn’t like NixOS much before trying it out. The Nix syntax looked weird, and the fact that nix flakes are an experimental feature didn’t help. However, all that changed when I tried using it. So, if you’re on a similar position, don’t hesitate, just try it. You can always reinstall your old distro.
Pros
To prove my point, here are some things I really like about the whole NixOS/Nix system.
Easy-to-share configurations
Having every single program configured in one file (or a structure of file) makes it easier to share them when you have multiple devices. No more configuring things twice.
Development environments
I have many projects made in Zig. Being a pre-1.0 project, some projects use the latest release, while others use nightly/master builds. It was a nightmare to switch zig versions all the time. Now, instead of having zig installed globally, I start a nix development shell, which adds to the PATH the correct Zig version from the nix store.
Now even this website has a development environment!
Garbage tracking
In my Arch Linux installation, I probably had over 50 packages that I used once and didn’t want on my system anymore. But I didn’t know. NixOS solves this in two ways.
- Nix shell: For single-use packages, you can start a nix shell. This will add it to the nix store, and start a shell with that package on the
PATH. However, nix knows it’s not referenced by your configuration, so it will remove it once you trigger the garbage collector. - Nix config: If you really want something on your system, you add it to your config. But it won’t simply be installed, it will be also listed on you config. So you know which packages you have explicitly installed at all times.
Easy packaging
Adding a package to the AUR (Arch User Repository) is not easy. Having a flake on your repo that you update alongside your codebase is extremely easy and convenient.
My config
If you want to take a look at my config, it’s available on GitHub. As you might already know, I’m obsessed with file organization, specially when it comes to source code. I’m still working on organizing it, but it’s already pretty modular.
TLDR: If you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend trying NixOS. You won’t regret it.