I've been curious about NixOS for quite some time. Reading about it I couldn't see how the config sharing capabilities, setup, or rollabck would be better than Arch and sharing the list of installed packages, using downgrade or chroot.
So I decided to run NixOS in a VM and I'm still confused. An advantage I can see for NixOS is its better use of cores and parallel processing for packages install.
It's clear that I'm missing something so please help me understand what it is.
Edit: Thank you to everyone in this great community! It's always so nice to have a constructive and sane discussion.
After reading so many comments, they all confirm what I've read before and I may realize that my real problem is already having a stable system and no need for the great NixOS options that are very neat but would not benefit my specific and simplistic needs.
That being said I can't refrain myself from being curious and will continue testing NixOS.
The need for only 2 config files is the top of the iceberg but hiding more complex configuration to rely on. Not that I really have too much spare time but I do enjoy learning and tweaking NixOS. With its current development state, things are changing a lot so it can keep me busy for months. That's probably what I was mostly looking for: another toy to play with.
Along my journey I will learn a lot about NixOS and may find a feature that will motivate my switch to it. Thanks again for all your precious feedback!
I'll also take this opportunity to share the best help I've found so far to start with NixOS: https://github.com/MatthiasBenaets/nixos-config And his 3 hours (!) video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AGVXJ-TIv3Y
The appeal of it, to me, is the same as why Docker containers are really good. You write your definition, save it to git, for example, and if you ever need to setup your computer from scratch, if you restore that config, it'll setup your computer exactly like it was before. But even besides that, being able to roll back if something goes wrong, is a big plus
That's what I keep reading and why I would like to give it a try. For now I'm still confused how this is easier/more efficient than sharing your list of packages, restoring a backup, or using downgrade in Arch. I'm really interested because I like to try new stuff, especially if they bring something of interest.
I really have hard time to see the difference for now after my first setup in a VM but also because imaging my full Arch system on a new machine 2 years ago only took me an hour and less than 10 command lines.
Again, I'm genuinely trying to understand what I'm missing. From my reading NixOS seems to be the only distro I could switch to.
Because your Nix config also configures your software, not just installs it. Admittedly, with base NixOS that's more true with server software than desktop. But with the addition of home manager you can also configure many desktop apps in your Nix config.
Sure but not everything can be defined in the Nix config. Firewalls have an issue, some options for packages are not implemented yet. For example systemd networkd doesn't have all the features implemented.
NixOS in it's current form does have it's limitations but it's ever improving. I personally have never had issues doing what I needed to firewall wise, but I've not done much of anything complex. Mostly just opening ports and a little port redirecting.