this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Linux
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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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Continued increase in Nix adoption. It seems like 2023 saw a real shift in favour of immutable solutions in general and Nix in particular.
Systemd is no bloat.
SystemD just happened to implement feature complete cronie(systemd-timers), grub(gummiboot), dhcpcd(resolveD), mdev(udev) equivalents. It doesn't mean it's bloated. Right?
Of course, those are discreet projects that can be picked out when there is a use case for them. Discreet solutions to problems is the hallmark of Unix systems isn't it? Any distro maintainer can choose to enable these if they want, as is the admin.
This is pretty much the whole point of using nix. The system is declarative, so it rebuilds the parts that changed, because all changes are imperitive and atomic. If it didn't rebuild your sshd config and restart the service when you changed the accepted key types, what would even be the point? Coming from a huge ansible background nix feels like ansible on steroids.
Why does this matter? Nix manages all your system binaries and PATHs just like any other distro, so why would it matter where they are kept? Programs like type/which still work exactly the same, and nix imports your dependencies exactly as described in the build scripts when you need to compile something locally.
Its honestly refreshing to see a distro really pushing innovation like this by taking advantage of everything Unix systems are built with and doing something this cool.