Use Nix expressions or flakes for that - just copy a simple example of default.nix or shell.nix from a git host and tweak it to your liking. Personally, I am not a fan of how Nix handles Python, and still can’t get used to how Python packages have to be included in expressions, so I create a temporary virtual environment for the time-being.
Using NixOS for more than six months, and I think I’m eligible to say what I like and hate about it.
What you’ll like:
easy configuration - just refer https://search.nixos.org, it’s that easy. I’m not taking that comment about “NixOS being hard to configure” seriously - and this is coming from someone who hasn’t even learnt the language properly. Yes, my configuration.nix is slightly polluted with Starship configs, and I might want to break them into modules, but it is still a job done decently.
won’t break easily except in some extreme situations - Laptop accidentally slipped from my hand during nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade - I guess it was the physical trauma to my device messed up the mount path to /boot, but it was rescued by a single CLI command from the recovery USB, and I didn’t lose any files.
upgrade is not prone to breakage, and even if it does, you can rollback - just don’t walk while holding your device and drop it.
it is a serious distro, not a “hobby” OS, and the experiences you will gain from learning Nix will help you with SaaS platforms like Replit or Railway, if you’re interested in using them sometimes in the future.
What you won’t like:
Binaries do not work properly - since Nix store is a completely different storage system compared to your usual FHS, most of the binaries will suffer from incorrect RPATH and dynamic loader issues - you might have to autopatchELF them, which is kind of irritating. This is also the case for AppImages, by the way.
Nix language is more like a custom DSL and less of a general purpose language, so you’re gonna have to use another language for automation (Shell, Python, Ruby), which might pollute your self-hosted Nixpkgs - Guix fixes this issue.
The bad part about NixOS is writing Nixpkgs expressions. The repository is damn huge and it is hard to maintain spaghetti code, writing your own package can be pretty hard, there’s some “hack”-y stuff you’re gonna have to use for building in, let’s say, using buildRustPackage and buildDotnetModule, and you’re gonna have to work with a senior maintainer.
Honestly, if I had to avoid Nix, I would go for Guix, Gentoo or Devuan. But yes, if you’re a beginner, I’d ask that you refrain from touching NixOS.
I don’t like GNOME for it’s poor theming support and it’s toxic dev community (ahem, talking about senior devs, especially Ebassi’s hostility towards newbies), but I think that it has some well-designed defaults. I love the workflow - everything is fast and snappy, shortcuts are pretty nice, aligning window is quick, and if there’s a lack of space, I can just drop the app in another workspace. Yes, I am using GNOME 45 at the movement, and I think it’s quite nice. But I also love the roadmap of GNUStep, and maybe if I can in the future, I would love to assist Gregory Casamento.
You might want to think twice before using unique, niche distros like GoboLinux, Alpine, or NixOS. PuppyLinux doesn’t look like a proper distro, more like the equivalent of EndeavourOS or Artix. Since you’re using Linux for the first time, why not use Linux Mint, Ubuntu or Fedora?
If you love it so much, then you can use Flatpak, Snap, Guix or Nix - there are user-level package managers that will give you the required choice. But why Brave? Aren’t there better Chromium alternatives out there?
It’s a rage-bait, avoid trolls like them. Whatsapp is close-sourced - so we don’t know shit about how good their encryption is - remember how phone numbers were showing up on Google Search? Yeah. Meta also works with the local government to suppress “fake news” - so, how exactly does it know what the contents are, without breaking encryption? These are two of the most convincing reason to not use the app.
Now I’m being dragged into the anti-systemd ideology. I have a bunch of CLI utility that I have never ever touched since the three years I’ve been on Linux. I just came across homectl, machinectl and timedatectl, and I’m convinced that the part about “bloat” does make a lot of sense now.
I meant alternatives to systemd-homed, systemd-machined and the likes. Since I’m on NixOS, I’m restricted to most of the systemd stuff. I’m not even sure if I need all of them.
I know that this is probably some close-sourced shenanigans, but can I push the limits of brightness below what GNOME sets? In Windows, I could go as low as I could, but this isn’t possible in GNOME anymore.