Why I Left NixOS for Ubuntu

Programming@programming.dev – 59 points – 7 months ago

Hey all, thought this might be of interest to some here.

Wrote about why I moved from NixOS to Ubuntu after using it for several months on my daily driver. Suspect that this take is likely to be kind of controversial and court claims of skill issues, which might even be true.

Let me know what you think.

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While many of the issues with Debian can be resolved by compiling from source, this has been one of the main causes of system failure for me in the past. It also requires equal or greater effort than playing with Nixfiles.

I guess you are doing something wrong here. I can't imagine that compiling stuff on Debian would be trickier than tinkering with NixOS.

Maybe you have been following advices on the web instead of taking the time to understand problems and keep your Debian tidy?

Besides, between an expert niche like NixOS and the popular Ubuntu, there are more than a dozen OSes you can consider when it comes to preferences on maintenance. You don't have to consider so many, but a blog article on your particular three / four (NixOS, Debian Ubuntu + Mint) looks a bit off.

I've tried Arch and others as well, even stuff like Slackware, Bodhi, Void, but I'd say that my preference has generally moved away from doing tinkering / maintenance at all other than for fun or profit. I'd still consider Nix for a server / workstation setup but just not as a daily driver.

I may be a touch biased, but I feel like you might enjoy trying Gentoo one day, especially with the recent official binary package host.

I keep meaning to try Gentoo out but haven't gotten round to it. I think it didn't like VirtualBox or something?