this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
140 points (94.9% liked)
Linux
48371 readers
1428 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I was just thinking about switching to Nix, but I have no idea what to choose now.
I disagree with @Shareni@programming.dev (sorry!) - the biggest issue right now is that package maintainers are leaving in droves - at least 15 contributors left a few days ago, a number which has likely increased these past few days - and will continue to increase. I think the only people left will be the ones who support Eelco and the toxic culture brewed by him.
What this means is that you risk your packages getting out of date, including slow delivery of security updates (which was already an increasing concern, due to the way the Nixpkgs build system worked). Worst case scenario, some (many?) packages may never even get an update.
So now's definitely NOT a good time to switch, and in fact I'd also urge existing users to look at other distros, at least temporarily until this whole thing settles down.
Don't say sorry for making an actual argument, or are you some Canadian lol?
According to this list there are 3470 maintainers. Were those 15 doing so much work to warrant calling it the end of days?
A possible delay for some package updates vs certainly outdated packages in my native Debian. Not really a choice IMO
I've been tempted for a while to switch from good old reliable Arch (btw) to NixOS, but now I'm glad I procrastinated and just ran it in a little VM specimen jar instead.
I guess it depends on what you're planning doing with NixOS or Aux. I wouldn't use it for anything new and critical. I'd figure out a mitigation strategy if I were relying on it for something critical.
But for experimental purposes, neither option seems like a bad call.