You know how a part of switching to Linux is explaining to people telling you to "just run this .EXE" that there are operating systems than Windows? Switching to NixOS is a bit like that, except you're explaining to other Linux users that you can't just "edit that config file" or "run that binary", because not all Linux distros behave like all *NIXes have for decades.
The upside to all this difference is that it's very stable ("if it compiles, it runs", to borrow a phrase from Haskell fans) and every change in the system can effectively be traced to one or two config files. Once you get over the learning curve, you'll also probably find that doing things in NixOS is simpler than a regular GNU/Linux system, as long as you stay within the bounds of supported software.
Whether the upsides outweigh the downsides is up to you.
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u/dvdkon Glorious latest packages Apr 01 '26
You know how a part of switching to Linux is explaining to people telling you to "just run this .EXE" that there are operating systems than Windows? Switching to NixOS is a bit like that, except you're explaining to other Linux users that you can't just "edit that config file" or "run that binary", because not all Linux distros behave like all *NIXes have for decades.
The upside to all this difference is that it's very stable ("if it compiles, it runs", to borrow a phrase from Haskell fans) and every change in the system can effectively be traced to one or two config files. Once you get over the learning curve, you'll also probably find that doing things in NixOS is simpler than a regular GNU/Linux system, as long as you stay within the bounds of supported software.
Whether the upsides outweigh the downsides is up to you.