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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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128

Why aren't more people using NixPKGs? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by clemdemort@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Distro agnostic packages like flatpaks and appimages have become extremely popular over the past few years, yet they seem to get a lot of dirt thrown on them because they are super bloated (since they bring all their dependencies with them).

NixPkgs are also distro agnostic, but they are about as light as regular system packages (.deb/.rpm/.PKG) all the while having an impressive 80 000 packages in their repos.

I don't get why more people aren't using them, sure they do need some tweaking but so do flatpaks, my main theory is that there are no graphical installer for them and the CLI installer is lacking (no progress bar, no ETA, strange syntax) I'm also scared that there is a downside to them I dont know about.

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[–] cybersandwich@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

[–] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

My guess would be that it's because Flatpaks are easy. You have a handy GUI tool often pre installed that includes search and one-click install.

If you want something lower level, Arch users have the AUR, and others may actually do that horrifying curl https://... | sh pattern.

Nix pancakes on the other hand.... I have no idea how to use them and generally assume it's the thing NixOS uses. Since I don't use NixOS, I've never given them a second thought.

[–] FlapKap@feddit.dk 2 points 1 year ago (8 children)

How does it solve the problem of dependencies without becoming bloated?

[–] clemdemort@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

From what I gather it goes something like this:

every package is assigned a hash
every package lists their dependencies through their hashes
different versions of packages have different hashes
when you launch an application it creates an environment with all its dependencies, this means that two applications that both use the same library at the same version share that library. However if they both require the same lib but not the same version of that lib they don't share it.

Which solves DLL hell as far as i understand it.

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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Steam Deck is using Flatpaks so.....

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[–] ChonkaLoo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Was curious myself don't like flatpaks & appimages much, but from a quick googling, they don't seem to integrate with the desktop so you need to launch them from terminal? That is a deal breaker for me at least.

[–] clemdemort@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

you have to set up the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable to take into account ~/.nix-profile/share the desktop icons will only appear after a relogin though.

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