• tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        41·
        6 months ago

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_From_Scratch

        Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a type of a Linux installation and the name of a book written by Gerard Beekmans, and as of May 2021, mainly maintained by Bruce Dubbs. The book gives readers instructions on how to build a Linux system from source. The book is available freely from the Linux From Scratch site.

        LWN.net reviewed LFS in 2004:[19]

        Linux From Scratch is a wonderful project. It should become a compulsory reading material for all Linux training courses, and something that every Linux enthusiast should complete at least once. This would also create another interesting side effect: people who tend to be quick in expressing dissatisfaction on the distributions’ mailing lists and forums would probably show a lot more respect for the developers. Installing a ready-made distribution is a trivial task. Building up a set of 4 CDs containing a stable, secure and reliable operating system, plus thousands of applications, is most definitely not.

        • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
          4·
          6 months ago

          This just reminds me of my first experience with Linux in the late 90’s. Yes they had installers that got the base system working, but then you had to compile so much.

        • Cenzorrll@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          I did this once. I got to a command line installation and I think I either borked installing a usable desktop environment, or I was just sick of it all and decided I wouln’t be getting working hibernation or Wi-Fi this way anyway and the slightly lower resources used wasn’t worth it.

          I think I had tried Gentoo before that and must have decided I didn’t like myself for some reason.

          • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            “Some DIY is fun, some is stuff we do by mistake because ‘well how hard can it be anyway?’ and it teaches us a lot for the next project. The rest we do purely to spite ourselves, because we should be able to do it, damnit!”

            -thing I said to a friend who asked why I was putting so much effort on myself when I could just buy a flat-pack for the same cost and 99% less effort.

    • Grenfur@lemm.eeEnglish
      42·
      6 months ago

      What’s funny to me here is that, as a long time Arch user, I have been considering switching to NixOS. One of the most terrifying thoughts to me is that after using the same Arch install for 2 years I will spend ages trying to recreate it if I ever have to. Oh, that and Nix letting you test packages seems like a cool feature.

      • harsh3466@lemmy.ml
        19·
        6 months ago

        I’ve been on arch around a year now and also considered the jump to NixOS. I was actually dual booting it with arch for awhile and I found pretty quickly that the shit documentation was a huge turn off for me. I ended up nuking the nix partition and reclaiming it for arch.

      • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
        8·
        6 months ago

        The nice thing is that NixOS will keep your setup and all your tweaks if you ever need to reinstall. It’s designed to solve that exact problem.

        One way of switching over would be to carry over your homedir and just starting with migrating packages and config as a first step.

    • Laser@feddit.org
      10·
      6 months ago

      Did you know that the suffix for nix documentation files is, coincidentally, .nix?

    • ne0phyte@feddit.org
      2·
      6 months ago

      The code of the packages is the documentation. So the newcomers better start learning Nix language and reading the paper about how Nix works under the hood before they get started! /s

      But seriously, I used NixOs for about 2 years almost 10 years ago and while it was/is fascinating when you have everything setup, getting there and maintaining everything across so many packages that each have their own way of configuring them took hundreds of hours. I’m back on Arch using a custom tool I wrote to fully manage my configs, packages, dotfiles etc.

      The way I remember it is that there is no consistency across Nix packages and it all feels like a giant puzzle for people who enjoy spending time configuring more than actually using the computer. And I say that as someone who actually enjoyed getting into that when I had unlimited time.

      • Laser@feddit.org
        1·
        6 months ago

        I dunno man. I spent way less time configuring my machines on NixOS because it just works. But in fairness, that is after I have spent a lot of time learning it (compared to classic systems that is, not a lot compared to NixOS maintainers who write way better module than I do). Now that there is a foundation, I just run the updates. It’s almost scarily stable. And the ability to group related settings together is such a bliss because you no longer wonder about “what did I do to enable X”, just open the file, it’s all in one place. Stuff that could be three completely different things (e.g. a service specific config file, a PAM entry and the service activation itself in effectively 5 lines. Want to do something for multiple services? Just map over their list. Etc

        I happily used Arch for 15 years and after trying NixOS on a decommissioned machine for one day I switched over everything as fast as possible. And I did try out Ansible on Arch, so it’s not like I didn’t try management via a tool. But using a system like NixOS just solves sooo many potential issues.

        It obviously comes with downsides, for example there is no quick configuration change. Changing something small requires another evaluation. Still worth it

      • iopq@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 months ago

        Okay, but when I figure it out on my desktop I just copy paste the exact snippet to my laptop and it just works.

        Do you think I can remember the steps I took to fix my issue with Ubuntu? I don’t remember what file I modified and where I put some config file.

        • ne0phyte@feddit.org
          0·
          6 months ago

          But to be fair, Nix is not the only answer to that. There are lots of tools for just dotfiles but you can also build something using e.g. ansible to manage everything.

          All my computers have their config in a git repo. That includes users, packages, services, dotfiles, /etc configs and so on. I used ansible before writing my own tool. I can install Arch from scratch and only need to partition, run one script and then apply my config on first boot using my tool to have my system restored. I know it’s not as declarative and absolute/reproducible as Nix, but it works and it’s way less painful than my last attempt at giving NixOS a go.

          • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            I’m about neck deep in ancible/salt/chef over the years at work.

            They are great tools for simple configurations where multiple people are needed in the kitchen, but they require meticulous curation.

            But I buy a new laptop, I slap in my USB vanilla Nix ISO, drop two config files in /etc/nixos call rebuild and I’m done.

            Updating my packages to latest is a single command. Adding a package is a single line. And the most powerful thing, nix-shell -p whatever install whatever for that session. I don’t even bother putting most stuff into my declaritive configs, nix-shell -p ffmpeg, when I exit it’s no longer available.

            And if I do something awful to my config and brick it, it’s just one grub menu to go back to the previous version.

  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
    21·
    6 months ago

    I mean isn’t it accepted that NixOS is a terrible pick for a beginner, especially a non-technical one? I feel like even the Nix community doesn’t recommend the distro to complete beginners.

    • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      I really wish everyone thought like that, but I still see people recommending Nix, Arch, Void… and some go the ideological route and start recommending systemd-less only like Artix or ranting against anything that uses Flatpak. Those discussions can get messy, and they always alienate the person who asked. Unfortunately those with ideological reasons are always the loudest and present in basically every “Beginner’s Help” group.

      • TwilightKiddy@programming.devEnglish
        61·
        6 months ago

        I wouldn’t recommend vanilla Arch only because of the installation process. CachyOS that simplifies it is an extremely good pick for a person who already knows what a computer is, but wants to try a proper OS.

        Arch mostly got it’s reputation in the early days. Today some things are a lot easier to do on Arch than on other distros, especially because AUR exists. Also, it built one of the best wikis over all that time.

    • Johanno@feddit.org
      7·
      6 months ago

      I use Nixos BTW.

      And I can’t recommend it to anyone. Not even veterans.

      I can only say if you like souls like games nixos might be your thing…

    • TheFANUM @lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      I wish. People recommend Arch to beginners all the time. And then wonder why there’s so many “Linux is too hard” comments everywhere

  • AZX3RIC@lemmy.world
    141·
    6 months ago

    I have an old MacBook for 2012, can barely open terminal, installed Pop!_OS, and I love it!

    Am I a terrible person?

  • tomjuggler@lemmy.world
    11·
    6 months ago

    I have this exact situation with my wife’s work laptop, which can’t upgrade to windows 11. The requirements are pretty simple, something that runs Chrome and Dropbox as well as Microsoft Office 2007.

    I’m going with Mint Cinnamon for her (I use arch & kde btw) - was pleasantly surprised to see Dropbox now has Linux support actually, haven’t looked at it for years!

    Almost everything she uses her computer for runs in Chrome.

    • kameecoding@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 months ago

      Now? i am pretty sure I have had dropbox on my linux machine like 10 years back, definitely back when AntergOS was still a thing and even before I remember having it

    • TBi@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 months ago

      There is a workaround to install windows 11 on most windows 10 machines. If that’s something you’d like to do I’ll go find it.

      You can actually install ChromeoS on a lot of machines these days.

  • MasterOKhan@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    6 months ago

    Big nix fan here, I love being able to define my system from a couple configuration files and not scrounging around the file system for the right dot file

    • srestegosaurio@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      And also it let’s you do crazy things that would be impossible in other imperative distros tho.

      I am thinking about root-on-tmpfs, conditional configuration and doing all sorts of crazy things with packages while remaining manageable.

      It is simply another whole tier.

  • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Does anyone really recommend Ubuntu these days? I think Mint has reigned supreme for years, at least for beginners.

        • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          How does mint have “poor gaming support”?

          1. The last time they tried it was ages ago, or they followed some old instructions.
          2. They’re trying to play a game that has serious anticheat aspirations and doesn’t run well on linux
          3. They want to play roblox.
  • Integrate777@discuss.online
    1·
    6 months ago

    NixOS consist of a bunch of options that you define using the nix programming language. Since it’s a programming language, everything is well defined and organised into single place.

    Technically, someone could build a GUI configuration editor with sane defaults and clearly organised pages of settings, which generates a configuration for you. This could immediately change NixOS from the most tedious to a relatively easy to use distro.