4 ms·

Nix for me has been a great source of stability. I used to run ubuntu and was never happy. Packages randomly broke, the UI lagged a lot, I always had to dig to

Nix for me has been a great source of stability. I used to run ubuntu and was never happy. Packages randomly broke, the UI lagged a lot, I always had to dig to get things working. One day when I head a uni deadline an automated updated destroyed my wifi funcionality. I had some experience with nix from work so in anger I installed NixOS. Wifi worked and I finished my uni assignment. Haven't installed anything else on my computers since, and that was 6 years ago. Sure things can be a pain. But NixOS has never broken in unexpected ways. I know if I update things may go wrong. But I can always go back and try again a newer version a few weeks later. The biggest drawback is really that "random executable from the internet" does not work out of the box. And sometimes you have to spend a lot of time to package something yourself. But all in all It has saved me time and a lot of pain. I dare even say I no longer have a toxic relationship with my OS.

VTimofeenko 2y ago
For those pesky random executables there's a couple of escape hatches -- buildFHSenv and nix-ld. This is also predicated on good provenance of the executables in question. One should probably not even ldd sketchy binaries: https://jmmv.dev/2023/07/ldd-untrusted-binaries.html https://jmmv.dev/2023/07/ldd-untrusted-binaries.html
- micahcc 2y ago
  steam-run seems to be able to run everything. It uses bubble wrap to keep the OS isolated and add /usr/bin stuff most exes want.
  - SuperSandro2000 2y ago
    *it won't be in the future because it is no longer the grabbag for everything. Also linking things to /usr/bin is done by the fhs which uses bubblewrap, not steam-run.
- soraminazuki 2y ago
  Even proper packaging is far easier compared to other package managers. Typical distros push users away from packaging their own software, so users end up relying on ad-hoc solutions instead. Nix instead makes packaging easier by having proper tools to abstract away the nitty gritty details. For random binaries, autoPatchelfHook works miracles.
  - 0x457 2y ago
    Every time I see a linux installation with a mess in /opt because it's faster than making a package, I get annoyed.
  - postcert 2y ago
    It wasn’t that bad creating some new derivations my first week with Nixos, I was so used to Arch where I had maybe a handful modified pkgbuilds over a decade. For better or worse it was a positive experience, especially when you usually already have a pkgbuild to go off of.
aszen 2y ago
I now use distrobox to run random binaries in a container. It's faster and convenient
- otabdeveloper4 2y ago
  > just run random binaries from the internet like it's 1998, bro That world was fun but I don't want to go back to that place.
3836293648 2y ago
NixOS literally just broke webcam drivers on alder lake and wake from sleep. That was a huge pain to deal with when updating for the rsync vulnerabilities. And a bunch of other issues. Thank goodness for perfect rollbacks. I'll take rsync vulnerabilities over a super broken system and try again in a few weeks.
- rowanG077 2y ago
  When did that happen? I don't recall anything breaking once we nixos 24.11??

VTimofeenko 2y ago

For those pesky random executables there's a couple of escape hatches -- buildFHSenv and nix-ld. This is also predicated on good provenance of the executables in question. One should probably not even ldd sketchy binaries: https://jmmv.dev/2023/07/ldd-untrusted-binaries.html https://jmmv.dev/2023/07/ldd-untrusted-binaries.html

micahcc 2y ago
steam-run seems to be able to run everything. It uses bubble wrap to keep the OS isolated and add /usr/bin stuff most exes want.
- SuperSandro2000 2y ago
  *it won't be in the future because it is no longer the grabbag for everything. Also linking things to /usr/bin is done by the fhs which uses bubblewrap, not steam-run.
soraminazuki 2y ago
Even proper packaging is far easier compared to other package managers. Typical distros push users away from packaging their own software, so users end up relying on ad-hoc solutions instead. Nix instead makes packaging easier by having proper tools to abstract away the nitty gritty details. For random binaries, autoPatchelfHook works miracles.
- 0x457 2y ago
  Every time I see a linux installation with a mess in /opt because it's faster than making a package, I get annoyed.
- postcert 2y ago
  It wasn’t that bad creating some new derivations my first week with Nixos, I was so used to Arch where I had maybe a handful modified pkgbuilds over a decade. For better or worse it was a positive experience, especially when you usually already have a pkgbuild to go off of.

aszen 2y ago

I now use distrobox to run random binaries in a container. It's faster and convenient

otabdeveloper4 2y ago
> just run random binaries from the internet like it's 1998, bro That world was fun but I don't want to go back to that place.

3836293648 2y ago

NixOS literally just broke webcam drivers on alder lake and wake from sleep. That was a huge pain to deal with when updating for the rsync vulnerabilities. And a bunch of other issues. Thank goodness for perfect rollbacks. I'll take rsync vulnerabilities over a super broken system and try again in a few weeks.

rowanG077 2y ago
When did that happen? I don't recall anything breaking once we nixos 24.11??