NixOS: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:08, 27 October 2024

NixOS Linux

Release Status	Maintained
Release Model	Varied depending on user configuration
Package Manager	Nix
Default Desktops	Awesome, Enlightenment, Fluxbox, GNOME, i3, IceWM, KDE Plasma, LXQt, Ratpoison, Xfce
Usage Type	Desktop, Server
Architectures	i686, x86_64, aarch64
Website	nixos.org

NixOS desktop running GNOME 43.1 along with Neofetch.

NixOS is a Linux distribution built around the Nix package manager, which provides atomic upgrades, rollbacks, and a declarative configuration model.^[1] It was originally founded by Eelco Dolstra.^[2]

Home Manager

Home Manager is a NixOS module for configuring user environments in /home, often integrated directly into NixOS to enable unified system and user-level rebuilds. It provides a broad range of options beyond standard NixOS configurations, allowing users to manage dotfiles, install and configure applications, and customize environment settings for a tailored, reproducible setup.

Lix

Lix is a community fork of Nix. It uses the meson build system, though the Lix team also plans to gradually introduce Rust to the source code.^[3] There are also plans to improve the Nix language and make it into the Lix language, which is different but still generally syntactically compatible with the Nix language.^[3]

Controversy

Anduril Sponsorship

NixCon 2023, a community convention for nix, has received a sponsorship from Anduril, a military defense contractor based in the US. The event venue, TU Darmstadt, became aware of the sponsorship and asked for additional information from the Nix Foundation to determine if the sponsorship was in accordance with their policies. Following this, the Nix Foundation decided to rescind the Anduril sponsorship.^[4]

Change of Leadership

Following an open letter of criticism to the Nix Foundation demanding the resignation of Eelco Dolstra, he eventually resigned.^[5]^[6] After the resignation, a new board was formed. Their first action was to unban a controversial user from the Nixpkgs contributor Zulip chat, which sparked controversy.^[6]

Trivia

NixOS uses a purely functional package management approach, ensuring that package installations do not interfere with one another.
The Nix package manager allows for reproducible builds, making it ideal for development environments.

[1] ttps://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-intro

[2] ttps://edolstra.github.io/pubs/phd-thesis.pdf

[:0-3] 3.0 ^3.1 https://lix.systems/about/#why-lix

[4] ttps://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixcon-2023-sponsorship-situation-from-the-nixos-foundation/33583

[5] ttps://save-nix-together.org

[:1-6] 6.0 ^6.1 https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/112450680035780629

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[6]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 === Home Manager ===
-Home Manager is a NixOS module for configuring user environments in <code>/home<code>, often integrated directly into NixOS to enable unified system and user-level rebuilds. It provides a broad range of options beyond standard NixOS configurations, allowing users to manage dotfiles, install and configure applications, and customize environment settings for a tailored, reproducible setup.
+Home Manager is a NixOS module for configuring user environments in /home, often integrated directly into NixOS to enable unified system and user-level rebuilds. It provides a broad range of options beyond standard NixOS configurations, allowing users to manage dotfiles, install and configure applications, and customize environment settings for a tailored, reproducible setup.
 === Lix ===