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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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127

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

submitted 8 months 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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[–] iopq@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

There's no bloat, nix are system packages

[–] neo@lemmy.comfysnug.space 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If there's no bloat why is there a garbage collector?

[–] AgileLizard@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago

The garbage collector removes all packages/derivations that are not (transitively) used any more. So it is similar to apt-get autoremove. I don't think that classifies as bloat. You could just regularly run the garbage collector.

[–] Shareni@programming.dev 4 points 8 months ago

Rollback, reproducibility, safety.

Would you call btrfs snapshots or some other backup system bloat?

It actually serves an important purpose for the user. Meanwhile apt is leaving around random libraries and man pages you need to autoremove.

[–] root@precious.net 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Having every application load their own version of a library into memory is bloat.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They don't, they share the same library version if they were built against it.

Lots of software won't even work if the library version is different, so it's a benefit, not a downside

[–] root@precious.net 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Right. That's why you build the software against a common library version.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

In which case it's shared in NixOS and there's no bloat