That is very surprising, last I heard it had to catch up with having popular applications. Is this due to how package dependencies differ on Nix vs what people think of traditionally as packages?
The reason is more that the config language that you have to learn if you want to use NixOS is the exact same you use to package applications for NixOS.
So any user is also just a tiny, non-intimidating step away from being a contributor and package maintainer.
I know for myself, I never packaged for the AUR - just seemed way to intimidating and a lot of new stuff to figure out - but I maintain a bunch of packages and modules in nixpkgs, and they’re all stuff that was “huh, this is cool but not packaged yet; alright, I’ll package it in my private config; oh that was easy, let’s upstream it”.
Awesome! Have fun. And I know I’m just an internet rando, but feel free to ask here/dm if you get stuck with something. The initial learning cliff definitely exists, but it’s absolutely worth it!
There is another reply to this comment where I said I’m not using it. If you are interested in something specific why not just go type the package name into their repository search thingy?
It’s pretty much the same thing as everywhere, you have a bunch of lovely people who package and test things, nothing too weird. What you are describing is LFS.
I was under the impression that you had to compile everything yourself on Gentoo and in Nix that you have to mess with a config to do everything and anything.
Maybe I should try them both to see what the fuzz is about.
Speaking about Gentoo, you don’t “have to” compile everything, but let’s just say it’s strongly encouraged. Most of the compilation is automated though, think AUR on steroids. If you don’t want to touch anything, you can go with defaults for all the software and you’ll get basically what you get on any other distro.
The thing is, though, if you are not being a little funny with your software, why the hell are you running Gentoo? So, it’s entirely optional, but it’s the main reason one would use Gentoo, otherwise you get a stock standard system with stupidly long updates.
I can’t speak for Nix, though, I haven’t touched it myself, but from what I know from those around me running it, it’s pretty much the same thing, unless you want something cool, you don’t have to suffer.
Okey thank you so much for the information! I can see the appeal. More freedom and customization. I am all for it.
But for my use cases I think Arch is enough. It strikes a nice balance with official packages and the AUR and I love that you get to choose all of the packages you want to have installed.
This is the way! Everything is based on Arch, Debian or Fedora anyway so you might as well stick to what is well known and supported.
angry Gentoo and NixOS noises
How is Nix with software support these days?
Nothing else even comes close, except the AUR, but even that not really:
https://repology.org/repositories/graphs
Interesting graphs.
Alas, the metric’s a mite confounded by the different ways distros split up packages. So it skews e.g. the Debians up, and the voidlinuxen down.
… I’m guessing that still wouldn’t be enough to put a dent in AUR and nixpkg 's towering package counts though.
That is very surprising, last I heard it had to catch up with having popular applications. Is this due to how package dependencies differ on Nix vs what people think of traditionally as packages?
Not really. (When was last time?)
The reason is more that the config language that you have to learn if you want to use NixOS is the exact same you use to package applications for NixOS.
So any user is also just a tiny, non-intimidating step away from being a contributor and package maintainer.
I know for myself, I never packaged for the AUR - just seemed way to intimidating and a lot of new stuff to figure out - but I maintain a bunch of packages and modules in nixpkgs, and they’re all stuff that was “huh, this is cool but not packaged yet; alright, I’ll package it in my private config; oh that was easy, let’s upstream it”.
Couldn’t even tell you tbh.
Well that’s pretty cool. I always liked the idea of being mega reproducible. I might try it on my home server instead of Debian.
Awesome! Have fun. And I know I’m just an internet rando, but feel free to ask here/dm if you get stuck with something. The initial learning cliff definitely exists, but it’s absolutely worth it!
There is another reply to this comment where I said I’m not using it. If you are interested in something specific why not just go type the package name into their repository search thingy?
https://search.nixos.org/packages
From my understanding NixOS and Gentoo is “support it yourself”. I haven’t tried either of them so I could be completely wrong about that.
It’s pretty much the same thing as everywhere, you have a bunch of lovely people who package and test things, nothing too weird. What you are describing is LFS.
I was under the impression that you had to compile everything yourself on Gentoo and in Nix that you have to mess with a config to do everything and anything.
Maybe I should try them both to see what the fuzz is about.
Speaking about Gentoo, you don’t “have to” compile everything, but let’s just say it’s strongly encouraged. Most of the compilation is automated though, think AUR on steroids. If you don’t want to touch anything, you can go with defaults for all the software and you’ll get basically what you get on any other distro.
The thing is, though, if you are not being a little funny with your software, why the hell are you running Gentoo? So, it’s entirely optional, but it’s the main reason one would use Gentoo, otherwise you get a stock standard system with stupidly long updates.
I can’t speak for Nix, though, I haven’t touched it myself, but from what I know from those around me running it, it’s pretty much the same thing, unless you want something cool, you don’t have to suffer.
Okey thank you so much for the information! I can see the appeal. More freedom and customization. I am all for it.
But for my use cases I think Arch is enough. It strikes a nice balance with official packages and the AUR and I love that you get to choose all of the packages you want to have installed.
Slackware users in shambles!