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Setting up a new system is where NixOS really shines. Once you have one system working it is trivial to duplicate it on new metal. 1. Install NixOS 2. Copy co

Setting up a new system is where NixOS really shines. Once you have one system working it is trivial to duplicate it on new metal. 1. Install NixOS 2. Copy configuration.nix* 3. Copy dotfiles 4. # nixos-rebuild switch 5. Enjoy your old setup on new hardware--no secret sauce needed! *A hardware-configuration.nix should have been generated by the installer. By default this is sourced by configuration.nix, in which case configuration.nix shouldn't need editing.

dleslie 10y ago
I've been interested in Nix and Guix for some time; would you be able to comment on the two?
- ramblenode 10y ago
  Probably the definitive document making the case for Nix (and Guix by extension) is Eelco Dolstra's PhD thesis [0] . The introduction is a good read by itself. I have never used Guix/GuixSD but have heard good things about it. Behind the scenes it uses the Nix package manager and offers a subset of Nix packages licensed as free software. Whereas Nix/NixOS uses the Nix expression language, Guix/GuixSD uses a Guile Scheme front-end. I've heard the Guix CLI is quite nice and a bit more polished than Nix's but Nix is currently in the process of overhauling the CLI. See [1] for a more detailed comparison. Both of these projects have very active development but don't have the volume of listings as you would find in e.g. AUR or the Debian repos. That said, I've been pleased and actually surprised at just how many packages exist. If you can't find what you want, contributing new packages isn't too hard (often just a case of finding something similar in the repos and changing the relevant values). You can check the current Nix [2] and Guix [3] packages here to see if enough of your needs are covered before giving one of them a try. [0] http://grosskurth.ca/bib/2006/dolstra-thesis.pdf http://grosskurth.ca/bib/2006/dolstra-thesis.pdf [1] http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-nix-and-gnu-guix.html http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-nix-and-gnu-... [2] https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html [3] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/ https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/
  - dleslie 10y ago
    Thanks!

dleslie 10y ago

I've been interested in Nix and Guix for some time; would you be able to comment on the two?

ramblenode 10y ago
Probably the definitive document making the case for Nix (and Guix by extension) is Eelco Dolstra's PhD thesis [0] . The introduction is a good read by itself. I have never used Guix/GuixSD but have heard good things about it. Behind the scenes it uses the Nix package manager and offers a subset of Nix packages licensed as free software. Whereas Nix/NixOS uses the Nix expression language, Guix/GuixSD uses a Guile Scheme front-end. I've heard the Guix CLI is quite nice and a bit more polished than Nix's but Nix is currently in the process of overhauling the CLI. See [1] for a more detailed comparison. Both of these projects have very active development but don't have the volume of listings as you would find in e.g. AUR or the Debian repos. That said, I've been pleased and actually surprised at just how many packages exist. If you can't find what you want, contributing new packages isn't too hard (often just a case of finding something similar in the repos and changing the relevant values). You can check the current Nix [2] and Guix [3] packages here to see if enough of your needs are covered before giving one of them a try. [0] http://grosskurth.ca/bib/2006/dolstra-thesis.pdf http://grosskurth.ca/bib/2006/dolstra-thesis.pdf [1] http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-nix-and-gnu-guix.html http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-nix-and-gnu-... [2] https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html [3] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/ https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/packages/
- dleslie 10y ago
  Thanks!