Talk:NixOS

PC Hardware Architectures

According to Distrowatch, NixOS is available for 32 bits i686 (Intel Pentium Pro and more modern), and 64 bits x86_64 (AMD Athlon 64 and more modern). On the Nix homepage one can find downloads for both platforms. I trust DW more than I do WP, somebody who cares should correct the info here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 185.16.52.89 (talk) 15:42, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

 Resolved Gmarmstrong (talk) 02:34, 8 May 2018 (UTC)

Nix language

I hear people referring to Nix as a language, I guess they mean this: https://medium.com/@MrJamesFisher/nix-by-example-a0063a1a4c55 --Nemo 17:25, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

The Nix manual (not the NixOS manual) has a section on "Nix expressions". That's the purely functional language behind Nix. The language itself is usually just called Nix (from my understanding). 20:23, 4 March 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gmarmstrong (talk • contribs)

Requires reboot?

One of the reviews (out on distrowatch) states that the system requires a reboot in order for an updated package to take effect? Is this true? This seems like a very important constraint; it should be mentioned here.

There's another suggestion in some other review that nixos may soon be a viable alternative to docker (software) and/or LXC (in terms of functionality). Is this true? Can one use nixos as if it was LXC? If so, how? If not, was this just wishful imagination on the part of some reviewer, or is this a stated future goal of nixos? 67.198.37.16 (talk) 19:19, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

questions above: 1. updating a package on nixos does not require a reboot. In fact virtually nothing requires a reboot. You can run nixos-rebuild on a live server safely, and the configuration will switch if it is valid, or roll back to last known config if not

2. nixos has a built in support for systemd-nspawn containers. I can also support Docker, LXC, and rkt containers.--69.47.70.168 (talk) 13:41, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Please add about compilation flags

Hi, I am on Gentoo, that is famous about it USE flag, that used mostly for compilation. Please, add such information to the article, how this is popular to tune the compiler system-wide, for example in Gentoo is popular to set march=native for faster binaries, and to build minimal versions of some software without unused features, if ebuild have such knobs. Vitaly Zdanevich (talk) 21:14, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

I'm unclear the relevance to NixOS? Are you saying comparisons should be made between how NixOS handles system-wide compilers? The NixOS philosophy is generally that system-wide compilers aren't great. By this I mean installation of C/C++/GO/Rust compilers are generally done using nix shells rather that having a system wide package to handle it. I may not be 100% correct on all those details as I'm still getting my head around NixOS. Generically Named (talk) 11:46, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

More diverse Reception?

Not sure if it's a good idea that both of the entries under Reception are from DistroWatch Weekly. Osalbahr (talk) 04:12, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Some sources

[1][2] 0xDeadbeef→∞ (talk to me) 03:08, 16 November 2023 (UTC)