NixOS 24.05 "Uakari" Released

[yjftsjthsd-h]

> The default kernel package has been updated from 6.1 to 6.6. All supported kernels since 4.19 remain available.

It is perhaps also worth pointing out that you can easily grab a newer kernel as well; https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Linux_kernel discusses options.

(Which I mostly mention because I skimmed the page, saw 6.6, made a confused face, went back to check that yes I do in fact have Linux 6.8 on my NixOS 23.11 system, then reread and realized they said default which I didn't really process the first time.)

[bsimpson]

I started using NixOS sort of randomly - I wanted a SteamOS-esque experience for my gaming handheld, and Jovian for NixOS seemed like one of the best options for that at the time.

I like that it's about as close to the SteamOS experience that you can get in a third party distribution, and I like that everything is modular (so you could pick whatever desktop you want to pair it with).

It's weird that _everything_ is configuration in Nix. Little stuff like changing your timezone seems to require a NixOS rebuild (which requires a keyboard). GUI settings clash with the Nix way of doing things.

[k8svet]

Do note you can not set the timezone in config and set it at runtime. Useful if you move around a lot.

[fuzzy2]

Dunno if you’re aware, but there’s also Fedora’s Atomic Desktop, which is actually more similar to Steam OS, as far as I can tell. Built on top is Universal Blue, which includes an actual Steam OS remix called “Bazzite”.

Conceptually, it is very different from NixOS, with image-based updates and all.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

> Little stuff like changing your timezone seems to require a NixOS rebuild (which requires a keyboard).

You mean setting the timezone (going and writing `time.timeZone = "whatever";`)? Because actually doing the rebuild (`nixos-rebuild switch`) would be easy enough to make a button for if you wanted (just make a .desktop file that runs the rebuild command).

[hammyhavoc]

You can have a declarative env with imperative dotfiles with NixOS—no problem.

[arvigeus]

What I love about NixOS is the ability to configure my entire system in one place. What I hate is the Nix language itself - you’ll get used to it, but only because you have no other real choice.

[anotherhue]

Yeah, it feels like writing bash in Haskell. I don't know if it's a reflection of the core problem domain though - it feels like it might be.

[acheong08]

I really want to switch to NixOS at one point. I’ve had a try about a month ago but having not read much documentation beforehand, it took too much time for me to get everything the way I wanted. Fedora with Hyprland has been working just fine for me so maybe I’ll hold off until things become easier.

[bsimpson]

> things become easier

I'm not even sure what that would look like. Nix is such a departure from other Linuxen that I don't think it will magically become easier; I expect you'll always need to understand Nix to use it. Maybe better syntax highlighting etc. would help?

I expect it's much easier to learn Nix in the age of LLMs than it would have been before.

[ninetyninenine]

Not super likely this will happen any time soon. In the closed source world profits drive development and ease of use drives profit.

In the open source world what drives development is some neck beards obscure opinion on user friendliness. Which likely still involves a command line tool and a config file with an acronym as the config parameter.

[opengears]

Hyprland installation is a oneliner (if you are not on nvidia) programs.hyprland.enable = true; :D

[lostmsu]

God damn it, I just installed the previous version in a VM as my first experiment.

[pxc]

How'd your upgrade go? Upgrades between NixOS versions are smoother than you were likely expecting.

[justinsaccount]

Well, now you can upgrade it and see how that works :-)

[ncrmro]

Just started getting into nixos. Zfs on luks with tpm unlock is easy peezy