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That Computer Scientist - Nix is the New Arch! (thatcomputerscientist.com)

submitted 2 years ago by ericjmorey@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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[–] msage@programming.dev 7 points 2 years ago (12 children)

So how useful it is in practice?

How do updates work?

Can it play Crysis?

[–] uthredii@programming.dev 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

So how useful it is in practice?

It's useful for quite a few things in practise:

You can be sure software that is packaged with nix will behave the same on different computers.
You can avoid dependency conflicts.
You can automate some things that would otherwise take multiple (mostly manual steps) on other systems.

This video shows off some of the cool things you can do with nix: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6Le0IbPRzOE&feature=share9

How do updates work?

You update a programming by specifying the latest version of a program in config and rebuilding.

You update the OS by pointing to the channel you want to use and rebuilding.

You can time travel back to a previous state if anything goes wrong.

Can it play Crysis?

I expect so, some people.do use nix for gaming.

[–] msage@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Oh yeah, and how do you handle kernels?

[–] uthredii@programming.dev 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

You specify the kernal in the config and rebuild, reboot.

Here are the docs if you're interested: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Linux_kernel

[–] msage@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sweet, thanks. If I can configure kernel and modules, that is good enough to start with.

How long does it take for you to rebuild?

[–] uthredii@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago

Rebuilding after adding a single program doesn't take too long (depends on the program but often less than a minuet).

Rebuilding after upgrading the channel takes longer on my slow internet as many programs have version upgrades that need to be downloaded. I think it took 30-60mins last time. I imagine it would be faster with better internet.

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