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Nixos is a perfect toy for techies with too much free time. Decades ago it would be *BSD, Gentoo, Arch and so on. Opensuse with snapshots and some repo magic,

Nixos is a perfect toy for techies with too much free time. Decades ago it would be *BSD, Gentoo, Arch and so on. Opensuse with snapshots and some repo magic, can do 99% of functionality, without learning yet another abstraction layer. But dealing with RPMs is very unsexy.

skinkestek 3y ago
For someone who doesn't have too much free: Do you have any pointers on how to get this setup working Assume I have worked with rpm based distros in the distant past (last time at work 10 or so years ago) and with Ubuntu and derived distros a bit more.
- unicornmama 3y ago
  If you have a weekend then try to install a NixOS ISO on a VM or physical machine. Then try to configure it with some packages you want. If you don’t have a weekend, then forget it. Coming from other distros, NixOS is alien tech written by four dimensional beings.
  - skinkestek 3y ago
    Late, but I meant the Suse setup :-)
matrss 3y ago
> Opensuse with snapshots and some repo magic, can do 99% of functionality, [...] I doubt that. Does Opensuse have an integrated declarative configuration management system? How would I apply a patch to a program on Opensuse and build that program the same way as the distro-provided package was (i.e. into a rpm that I can then install)? What about changing compiler flags? How do I get an isolated development environment going with Opensuse, i.e. one that does not pollute the list of system-wide installed packages? How can I check if a package provided in the Opensuse repositories was not tampered with, i.e. the provided build instructions actually produce this package? Are there even build instructions for the rpm's provided? There is a lot more that nix and NixOS can do, this is just part of what came to mind on what I would assume is mostly impossible on "traditional" distros.
ElectricalUnion 3y ago
How do I learn the ways you're supposed upkeep this snapshot system? Because if this is like git, merges are gonna be a real pain. Because if this is anywhere like full filesystem rollbacks. it's gonna be a real pain. Also, I use a lot of software that likes being funny, do unspecified system-wide modifications while being outside of the package manager system therefore break it in non-reproducible ways down the line. I currently went and wandered into "I just want things to not break by default" [1] territory, and I use the semi-immutable systems of Fedora Silverblue/Sericea. I saw openSUSE Aeon/Kalpa, and liked the fact that it also has SELinux enabled, but it looks like the snapshot system interacts in bad ways with the overlay systems. [1] Things that want to install garbage even as root in random places will get either denied by SELinux or reverted once a new system update layer happens.

skinkestek 3y ago

For someone who doesn't have too much free: Do you have any pointers on how to get this setup working Assume I have worked with rpm based distros in the distant past (last time at work 10 or so years ago) and with Ubuntu and derived distros a bit more.

unicornmama 3y ago
If you have a weekend then try to install a NixOS ISO on a VM or physical machine. Then try to configure it with some packages you want. If you don’t have a weekend, then forget it. Coming from other distros, NixOS is alien tech written by four dimensional beings.
- skinkestek 3y ago
  Late, but I meant the Suse setup :-)

matrss 3y ago

> Opensuse with snapshots and some repo magic, can do 99% of functionality, [...] I doubt that. Does Opensuse have an integrated declarative configuration management system? How would I apply a patch to a program on Opensuse and build that program the same way as the distro-provided package was (i.e. into a rpm that I can then install)? What about changing compiler flags? How do I get an isolated development environment going with Opensuse, i.e. one that does not pollute the list of system-wide installed packages? How can I check if a package provided in the Opensuse repositories was not tampered with, i.e. the provided build instructions actually produce this package? Are there even build instructions for the rpm's provided? There is a lot more that nix and NixOS can do, this is just part of what came to mind on what I would assume is mostly impossible on "traditional" distros.

ElectricalUnion 3y ago

How do I learn the ways you're supposed upkeep this snapshot system? Because if this is like git, merges are gonna be a real pain. Because if this is anywhere like full filesystem rollbacks. it's gonna be a real pain. Also, I use a lot of software that likes being funny, do unspecified system-wide modifications while being outside of the package manager system therefore break it in non-reproducible ways down the line. I currently went and wandered into "I just want things to not break by default" [1] territory, and I use the semi-immutable systems of Fedora Silverblue/Sericea. I saw openSUSE Aeon/Kalpa, and liked the fact that it also has SELinux enabled, but it looks like the snapshot system interacts in bad ways with the overlay systems. [1] Things that want to install garbage even as root in random places will get either denied by SELinux or reverted once a new system update layer happens.