I have been seeing a lot of NixOS content recently, and a part of me appreciates the ideology of Nix.
- No need to remember how you configured your machine (running some random command inside some random directory).
- Separate the config from the physical machine. Redeploy elsewhere instantly.
I loved the idea even before I knew Nix when I switched from Gnome to i3 way back in 2017. Configure your i3 config once and never worry about “new” (read “breaking”) features from the distro. I used the same config for nearly a decade with minor changes, till I switched to niri this year. So the way I interact with my desktop has not changed for a long time.
Back to the topic; while Nix configures your OS in a declarative manner, it’s very different from what I’m used to. I have managed Ubuntu systems in depth, and now I know there is a huge carry-over of knowledge across other distros (arch/fedora/centos). And this “hobbyist-level” knowledge has helped me multiple times at my work. But Nix is very different in the way we configure a system compared to the norm.
My fear is that not only do I have to throw away chunks of my existing Linux know-how, but the new Nix-way will interfere with what I currently know and require at my job. Is there some truth behind my thinking or am I just being a bit paranoid? Fresh and veteran Nix users, please help.
With NixOS i’ll leave it for a week and go to another distro and then I think to myself “what am I doing? I can just do all this on Nix” and then I go back to NixOS.
On my NixOS I have a few destroboxes set up. One for Arch, one for Fedora, Debian, and Void. I use all of them for various things so I NEED to know all the quirks of various distros. So the knowledge I’ve acquired from the various Linux distros never goes away, I still use it all daily. Also, you’re right, your fear is valid not so much in a way you’ll potentially “lose” that knowledge but rather…you might get bored.
Arch bores me now. it’s too easy. NixOS is just so much more interesting and fun to tinker with. Like for example last night I put Arch on another machine to tinker with and already i’m looking to uninstall it. It’s boring. Nix has also spoiled me with knowing EXACTLY what’s on my system and having it all right there in front of my face. I enjoy version controlling it, tweaking it, making my configs cleaner, more effeciant. I don’t feel I get that on other distros. Sure there are tools to mimic the “feeling” of NixOS on other distros like The Black Don’s Dcli for Arch but it’s not the same and even he’ll admit it’s not the same and just end up back on NixOS. But now I’m just rantnig.
If you’re concerned about losing that knowledge of other distros do what I do, just set up a few distroboxes and use them for various applications. like for me Tabby isn’t packaged in NixOS and it’s been several months since the last person made an update on said package so I simply use my Arch distrobox to use it. There are some really niche .deb programs that either don’t work well on NixOS or don’t exist so I use my Debian distrobox. On the opposite end there’s stuff like Supersonic which actually works much better on NixOS than Arch so that’s an obvious choice. mix and match. build out a complete Linux Box with NixOS at it’s core. once you do…man everything becomes a breeze.
insert meme format here
You and me are not the same.
You uninstall Arch because you are bored.
I uninstall Arch because I am scared.
Actually not true, I never even installed Arch because I am scared lol
I uninstalled Arch because I got work to do. What does that make me?
honestly it’s really not hard anymore especially if you use archinstall. everything is there for you, even sets up DEs/WMs for you now. The HARDEST part is remembering the commands for iwctl to connect to the internet. that’s it.