And you know what the worst part is? I didn't even care about declarative configuration! But Nix has the best of all worlds in a way nothing else does. It's like if you took all the goods from atomic distros and flatpaks with none of the bads. The FHS-noncompliance is hitting me like a truck because I play a lot of recompilations and non-steam videogames that are only distributed as crude binaries (pokèwilds, the symphony of the night recomp, sm64dx-coop, bb-launcher, rpg paper maker etc). But god, now that I've tried NixOS, every other distro feels lacking. I don't think I can go back to the messy-ness of traditional distros, nor the confinement headaches of immutable distros. I am so glad NixOS exists

I do not intend to raise any troll but rather ask passionate users to provide feedback...

everything is in the title but long story if needed -

I imagine if someone was looking to a more traditionnal linux (at least in the sense of FHS), yet robust OS, Fedora atomic could be a possible choice.

Apparently BlueBuild even allows "recipes" ( https://blue-build.org/reference/recipe/ ) and it seems it could be easier to leverage "standards" like appimage, python scripts, and so on.

I do not consider any switch at the moment since I invested some time and config is working great on NixOS, this is one of the rare OS I ever liked : very stable, actually the most reliable OS I ever testsed, and it is very pleasant to "admin" a declarative OS -- no need to talk about it here, you certainly love it too! well as far as i "admin" my linux -- doing nothing brillant, just using it ;)

Anyway sometimes NixOS raises issues we do not face with "usual boring distro". Cargo has like 20 methods! It feels like Nix invented the right ideas but tech was not totally available so weird implementation had to take place. Could some "modern" atomic even improve this? Or maybe do you feel Nix itself could improve?

I run a pretty minimal Arch setup with bash script that installs packages and symlinks my dotfiles, which works just fine for reproducing my desktop setup. I am not looking to switch to NixOS, it feels like overkill for what I need on the system level.

What I am interested in is using Nix purely as a package manager to get reproducible dev environments, something I can pull down on any machine that has Nix installed and get working.

I have gone through the official nix.dev docs, and from what I can understand shell.nix or flakes (seems experimental but quite a lot recommend it anyway) is what I need. I have also been experimenting with mise but nix seems to be capable of a lot more. Time will tell.

Any advice from people actually running plain Nix for development in 2026?

Note: For me maintaining NixOS config feels similar to maintaining my bash script with extra steps and different kind of learning curve, so please don't recommend to switch to NixOS if possible. That's not my goal yet. I will make the switch myself if needed.

so i do have a all amd build, and im done with winslop (windows) and i want to game. im new to linux, ive used cachyos before, and im open to learn new things, even if it takes me a long time.
so should i?

When designing NixOS config. Is forcing my LLM to NOT use specialArgs and extraSpecialArgs a good idea? To both tame the crazy monkey chaos and give me a chance to learn properly.

I am building my first NixOS config across all my computers and trying to use as conventional a setup as possible using flakes, NixOS modules and Home Manager.

Leaning very very heavily on LLMs because its very overwhelming. Pulled every repo, downloaded every skill and making Claude explain me every line of code as I hand write it.

In studying other peoples skills I have noticed that a lot of the dendritic skills actively discourage specialArgs and extraSpecialArgs. I do aim to move in a few months to dendritic but right now normal NixOS modules are a mountain I need to climb first.

My understanding is that banning specialArgs/extraSpecialArgs forces the configuration toward things like:

• normal module options and config
• ordinary module imports/composition
• lexical let bindings for local values
• existing NixOS/Home Manager options rather than arbitrary injected arguments
• small reusable modules with more explicit dependencies

It gives me less to take in and fewer hidden sources. If a module needs something it comes clearly through the modules rather than a mystery sack of arguments injected at flake root. So fewer mechanisms for me to understand as I am a pretty green beginner. (its also my first Linux install).

Am I correct that this makes Dendritic migration cleaner afterwards?

Is there any functionality that I am now missing? Am I handicapping my config? or can I comfortably live a healthy NixOS life without these arguments?

What concrete applications are there that I MUST use specialArgs and extraSpecialArgs?

What normal NixOS config setups am I going to make unnecessarily awkward by doing this?

Is it a good idea? I basically want to stop the LLM from monkey rabbiting values around everywhere in an opaque way.

Sorry for the Noob question! I have searched the REDDIT archives a lot about this.

hi !!

After almost five years of using Fedora Kinoite, I switched to NixOS because I ran into issues with the latest version (44).

There are some things that bugs me, like install or use a pkgs that is not in the repos, example godot 4.8-dev4, I have to create a script to build it and then install, or use nix-ld or just use it in a shell.

So, just as I was trying to get used to this new workflow, then I read this news: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/the-nixpkgs-core-team-has-disbanded/79413 also I didn't understand the thing about DHH (just watched and read some parts and many comments that are not agree with him).

What is the current situation with NixOS? I've seen various posts saying "this has happened before".

Also, after a week of reading, copy-pasting, rebooting, and rebuilding, I don't want to just throw it all away.

Now I tried in my second pc, fedora atomic sway and its not the same, I cant change the qt icons in qt apps, or set properly qt themes, nixos feels more lightweight in cpu, ram and gpu, and I prefer hyprland.

My flatpak GTK apps look bad and out of place in KDE. I've been trying a lot of config snippets to fix this, and haven't figured it out yet, even with all my cunning. Can someone have a look at my config and let me know if I'm missing some magic to get a more consistent theme across all my apps?

 environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    kdePackages.breeze-gtk
    kdePackages.kde-gtk-config
    kdePackages.qt6gtk2
    kdePackages.qtsvg
  ];

  xdg.portal = {
    enable = true;
    extraPortals = [ pkgs.kdePackages.xdg-desktop-portal-kde ];
    config.common.default = "kde";
  };

  system.activationScripts.flatpak.text = ''
    /run/current-system/sw/bin/flatpak override --user --filesystem=xdg-config/gtkrc:ro
    /run/current-system/sw/bin/flatpak override --user --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-2.0:ro
    /run/current-system/sw/bin/flatpak override --user --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-3.0:ro
    /run/current-system/sw/bin/flatpak override --user --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-4.0:ro
  '';

  # https://wiki.nixos.org/wiki/Flatpak - for all users
  services.flatpak = {
    enable = true;
    packages = [
      "org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Breeze"
      "org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Breeze-Dark"
    ];
  };

hello everyone
i want to try nixos but some packages take along time to be updated
like faugus-launcher and i use it everyday
or the linux kernel
so is there a way to update it and make the os like arch or i just wait

So I like to keep my bootloader tidy, only allowing 10 generations, each with a kernel specialization. Nothing terribly fancy; just the latest kernel and which ever one I also like to use (right now it’s Zen).

And for anyone who doesn’t know, keeping a specialization for each generation (in this case two different kernels) effectively doubles their space on /boot. This does mean my /boot partition is over 2GB since the space I use is usually right around that number.

Anyway, I got curious if I could still access and use a generation that was still on my system but wasn’t still on my bootloader. And expanding my generations all the way down would have filled my /boot real quick, so that “solution” was a no-go. So I mucked about this afternoon, made a whole other .nix file and after quite a few attempts I finally got it.

This is the kind of stuff that always makes me feel good and I love NixOS for it. I just don’t worry about trying something new because I know I have quite a few safety nets.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Couple days ago I posted this;

Anyways I switched back to NixOs and completely configured my files, with flakes and home manager, and my system feels incredibly stable right now. I did try and configured a Hyprland environment, but to be honest, I don’t know if a Window Manager environment is really for me, so I’m sticking to KDE for now, and I’ve made it look surprisingly nice. Typically, I can never find the niche setup for KDE, or really any DE really. I have never tried Gnome either btw so lemme know if y’all prefer Gnome over KDE and why. Idk what it is about Hyprland but I’ve used other window Managers in the past like, oxwm, and I always find myself preferring others over Hyprland. I am primarily a gamer and yeah I know NixOS might be an odd distro choice and preference over other ones that are much easier to configure and setup, but I enjoy NixOS’ home manager, flakes, etc. Anyways enough yapping, hope y’all have a good day/night

tldr: Is there any reason to use flake-parts in my NixOS config if I'm only configuring one host, or if all hosts are x86_64-linux systems?

I recently installed NixOS again after a few years, I have been looking into the dendritic pattern/flake-parts as an approach to my updated config. From popular examples, it presented itself as a solution to writing and keeping track of long 'imports = [];' statements in multiple files. After getting a feel for it and aiming to design my updated config around a single common system, I'm starting to realize this is not the case. It appears that flake-parts modules better suit someone who wants to design their configuration around multiple different systems (x86-64, darwin, etc.). If this is the case, I will most likely move away from flake-parts as continue to work on my config.

If you didn't know, you're about to that August 6, 7, 8, 9 was DEF CON 34 and Nixers were definitely present. Join Alex, Chris, Morgan, Jared, Dan, Tristan and I for a recounting of Nix Vegas, the official Nix space at the latest DEF CON.

Full Time Nix | Nix Vegas 2026

DOUBLE-TRIPLE-QUADRUPLE-FUCK LENOVO

i sent my ideapad laptop, which i bought with NO OS, to repair the battery the official way, through the lenovo website. they installed shitdows 11 on my PC without me knowing. everything is gone.

at least i thought about copying my entire home and etc directories to an external hard drive, which at the time i thought was unnecessary bc WHY would they need to install the absolute peace of shit windows is amirite? they've pissed me off so so so so SO SO SO SO SO bad i'm seriously one small thing away from breaking something rn.

now, how the FUCK do i delete it? /srs /gen /desperate /angry /helpmepleasewtf-ly

edit: currently reinstalling it. i hope my custom mimetypes survived somewhere in my home dir ;;

edit 2: it doesn't switch, it just shows a black screen with a blinking cursor, +dbus.service (i think it was?) fails to restart. idk what i'm doing wrong i haven't touched the config file qq

edit 3: ok i lost my config (my hard drive had a stroke). BUT my home dir is a-ok! i'msonotgonnauseitinawhileoutoffrustration

edit 4: in case you were wondering, I UNDELETED MY CONFIG FILES :D

Hey guys, I need to use JavaFX with Eclipse. I'm really struggling to get to grips with it for NixOS. I used to dual boot just to use JavaFX. But I'm fed up with that, so I would like some help to use NixOS for this as well. I installed IntelliJ IDEA in the hope that it would work, but it doesn't. I also tried OpenJFX, but the main problem is that the Eclipse runner doesn't work with NixOS. If anyone uses JavaFX under NixOS, it would be great to get some help.

Installed NixOS yesterday as a complete beginner, i got into Linux 2 weeks ago from windows and i've been blasting CachyOS on it since, heard about NixOS few days ago and wanted to try it cause the concept seemed cool to me, so i got it on my second pc, already got flakes, home manager, git, and created modules to clean my configuration.nix, im actually digging the idea of declaring stuff myself and i might even swap my main pc to it when i feel comfy enough :P

I have nixos with vultr before and tried to create a new vm, using ubuntu 22, 24, 26 LTS editions with the command:

`#!/bin/sh

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/elitak/nixos-infect/master/nixos-infect | NIX_CHANNEL=nixos-24.05 bash 2>&1 | tee /tmp/infect.log`

and always get dd: IO error: No space left on device.

I get:

root@dash:~# df -h df -ih Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on tmpfs 679M 1.3M 678M 1% /run /dev/vda2 75G 12G 60G 17% / tmpfs 1.7G 0 1.7G 0% /dev/shm efivarfs 256K 19K 233K 8% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars tmpfs 1.7G 1.7G 0 100% /tmp /dev/vda1 511M 6.4M 505M 2% /boot/efi none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/getty@tty1.service none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/serial-getty@ttyS1.service tmpfs 340M 8.0K 340M 1% /run/user/0 none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/systemd-resolved.service none 1.0M 0 1.0M 0% /run/credentials/systemd-networkd.service

This is the error I have when trying to rebuild my nix darwin configuration. I use kitty terminal, and in macOS settings I gave it full disk access and access to update other apps (app management).

0: Darwin activation failed 1: Activating configuration (exit status ExitStatus(Exited(1))) stderr: [a bunch of lines ommitted] Activating installPackages Activating linkGeneration Cleaning up orphan links from /Users/user Creating home file links in /Users/user ln: failed to create symbolic link '/Users/user/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/o9fiaukr.2nd Profile/user.js': Operation not permitted ln: failed to create symbolic link '/Users/user/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/o9fiaukr.2nd Profile/.keep': Operation not permitted

I use the same home.nix for both NixOS and Nix Darwin.

programs.firefox = { enable = true; profiles = { default = { id = 0; name = "Default"; isDefault = true; path = firefox-profile; }; secondary = { id = 1; name = "Secondary"; path = "o9fiaukr.2nd Profile"; }; }; };

Despite not getting a simple set up going…
I don’t understand how flakes work yet.

The default KDE/gnome/lxqt/ only ones I tried…
Work fantastic. I’m in that limbo where I can’t seem to make it do what I want yet I can’t /don’t want to go back to any distro else.

Right now Ive reinstalled with no desktop a few apps I use. In case that zen moment hits and it clicks. I don’t have flakes running yet. Sorry for a shit screen shot. It’s what I can work with atm.

If anyone would be kind enough help with a base of niri/noctalia /zed editor/ zen browser.
I’ve tried to clone or copy others configs, but most either have too many things going on or not what I need. I get it I’m trying to learn from others who have more advanced set ups. So I’m not mad at my failures.
Just don’t get what is going wrong to sort it out and
Deprecated syntax or an error with outputs.

Most yt videos are old and the new ones talk about how to install which I got that far. Thanks for any help, explanations. Links to recent docs that aren’t from 2 yrs old. (Not interested in home manager YET, flakes are fine for now. Unless home manager makes configuring things significantly easier.)

I’ll work on a better screen shot if needed my phone adds a glare sorry.

I installed the "pkgs.pkgsRocm.blender" package to get hip support for blender, but whenever i try to use hip on my gpu with cycles blender just crashes, ive tried both opengl and vulkan and both crash. Heres my dotfiles repo for anyonew who wants to take a look to try and help. https://github.com/mc-724634/NixDotfiles