NixOS and Nix ... is this a flatpak alternative?

FOSS Applications/Projects
41

Because it’s the default in Ubuntu, because when they (Canonical/Ubuntu) jumped back to Gnome from Unity - it was similar, and because I find it the easiest to get a MacOS look and feel, and I use MacOS. It’s easy enough on Ubuntu 24.04 to get mostly X11 style X Select Buffer features. Lack of slow double click rename in Files is not a showstopper - merely an annoyance… and BTW - I do about 90% of filemanagement in a terminal anyway…

I have 4 x 32" QHD monitors on my desk…

Left is my work Mac, Middle (and top) is my Ubuntu desktop, Right is my personal Mac…

I drive them all with the same keyboard and mouse via Synergy KVM…

It’s nice to have the same consistent look and feel, and Gnome Tweaks makes it easy to move the window control widgets to the left of application windows (not all apps respect this - like Steam, and both MS Edge and Teams Preview ignore it) - that’s also possible in XFCE almost as easily, but XFCE feels kinda clunky compared to Gnome 4/5… and that “non-intelligent” bottom panel is a PITA, and I usually install plank and use that instead for a dynamic “dock”.

Preferences for DE:
Gnome 4x / 5x
elementary
xfce / mate

I loathe KDE and LXDE (the one the Raspberry Pi Foundation use for their Pixel desktop). To be fair - I haven’t given KDE a fair go - but I hate the default layout that’s trying to mimic Windows from 20 years ago…

Back to NixOS…

I might trash my current NixOS VM and try another flavour - so many choices… I’ll use the above (my previous posts in this thread) as a reference…

42

Yeah, I used Gnome 2 and 3 in Debian for years because it was the default.
Then I found Xfce was simpler and faster.

Slackware would be a good place to try Nix outside of Nixos …

43

I use Garuda which is Arch-based, mostly because I like its Garuda ToolBox app, a collection of scripted wrappers for most every system management process you could ask for, each one can be executed with a single click and usually my password to satisfy sudo.

As for NixOS, I gave it a try a few years ago, and while it was fun to explore, it didn’t offer anything I couldn’t get with most any other distribution. Since I like to tinker with my system, essentially non stop, Nix could get in my way more than I was ultimately willing to put up with, so it never got past the VM stage for me.

44

Currently VM stage only for me… But trialling it with Gnome… didn’t trash the instance with pantheon… might as well keep it…

But there’s things I like about it… I just wish they’d include vi/vim/neovim by default…

Drives me bonkers when visudo (it’s mnemonic for vi /etc/sudoers) doesn’t load vi, it loads nano!

45

My recent Gentoo minimal install came without vi .
Drives me mad too. It is ages before you can remedy it in a Gentoo build.

46

I get that if you’re a long time Vi user, but I came from MS-DOS and Windows, so the way Vi works (the keyboard commands) is just too foreign for my muscle memory to get used to. And besides, I like how Nano puts the most common keyboard commands at the bottom of the window/screen.

47

That is true, but try building LFS without vim!!

48

You might like Emacs … it does that.

Yes vi is a radically different editor … people have trouble with the concept of flipping between command mode and input mode … I know of no other editor that has modes.

49

I just built a Gentoo without vi. It was painful
The minimal stage3 does not include vi..
It is running … boots in 3 seconds.

50

I have no argument with that, even though I haven’t tried to build LFS as yet. All I was saying is that for most cases, nano is my preferred go-to in the terminal, and to be honest, unless Vim has required features for building LFS, I might even try to do that in nano too. :slight_smile:

51

Modes may be what makes Vim so powerful too. I may take some time and try to learn it better just because it really is one of the most iconic CLI text editors for Linux. Iconic software is like old sayings in that it has been found to be the best choice by many users over many years, just as old sayings become regarded as that because of how long they have been found to be true. :slight_smile:

52

You are not biased Ernie.
I like old things too. It is like giving our ancestors a say in what we do today.

53

More than that, old sayings become old sayings because generation after generation finds them to be true, so they propagate/keep using them. I suppose that it could be said that the wisdom of previous generations is worth listening to, :slight_smile:

54

More than that, it is actually all of the wisdom that we have. The current generations (ie all of us who are still around) are still learning.

55

Vim is installed with the base LFS packages, once LFS boots you can use BLFS and install nano!!

56

Thank you! I’ll remember that when I give LFS a try!

57

Are you really serious about compiling LFS?

58

Not yet entirely sure, but I’m thinking about it. Before I begin, I’ll do some research, and anything I don’t understand, I’ll ask AI, checking its answer with the citations it provides to be sure it’s correctly interpreting the source material.

59

LFS can be a learning experience, and I would strongly suggest, from my experience, start with a Gentoo compile, without binary packages enabled!! Why, Gentoo and LFS are mostly the same, except Gentoo has a package manager, Portage, and LFS has to have a host distro, for compiling, and I almost always use Gentoo!! Either with a Gentoo hard install or with the Gentoo live ISO!! The base LFS is not that difficult but BLFS is sometimes hard to follow!!

60

I know it’s not in the LFS book but I think you can install nano to LFS in some point before you’re done.

Says:

To successfully compile GNU nano from git, you’ll need the following:

autoconf    (version >= 2.69)
automake    (version >= 1.14)
autopoint   (version >= 0.20)
gcc         (version >= 5.0)
gettext     (version >= 0.20)
git         (version >= 2.7.4)
groff       (version >= 1.12)
make        (any version)
pkg-config  (version >= 0.22)
texinfo     (version >= 4.0)