this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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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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I'm enjoying what Nix does. That said, the learning curve is very steep, and the documentation is very inconsistent and usually poor.
The repositories for both nixpkgs and nixos are absolutely colossal, which is a huge plus, but their configurations are not listed on the same page, and it can lead to a lot of confusion. Unlike Arch's PKGBUILD, which practically tell the build system exactly what to do, you'll have to learn the structure of current configuration files, or the more recent flake system, to setup things how you like.
Maybe I'll wait until things aren't a mess
Its actually not that bad. A few google searches on how to setup config files and going to https://search.nixos.org/packages to show you what info to fill in in the NixOS configuration is all you do.
And, even more importantly, https://search.nixos.org/options to figure out which options to set. Always search for options first. "Installing" something by just adding the package to systemPackages etc. is usually the correct thing to do for end-user applications but not for "system things" such as services.
I recently had the same thoughts but was Ted to try nonetheless. Asked for some beginner friendly resources here on lemmy a little while back. Might be to further help for some 😊
https://lemmy.world/post/9968863
Do you mean http://search.nixos.org/packages Because that has config info on the page of the listed package. Unless I am misunderstanding what you meant by their configurations?
That's technically correct. The "NixOS configuration" tab is sufficient to just install something, however out of ever package I've personally used, none of them have listed the available options there. For example: this theme, and what the extra options are
That's just the installation config. For more popular packages, the wiki sometimes contains additional configuration.
So many excellent projects are crippled by having little but reference docs and scant, over abstracted descriptions.