One of the strongest points of Linux is the package management. In 2025, the world of Linux package management is very varied, with several options available, each with their advantages and trade-offs over the others.
[Nix] allows users to reliably reproduce the same state coming from any other state, which is also used for safe rollbacks.
What does that mean for configuration? How does configuration and customization play into Nix declarations?
I’m thinking of what would usually be in /etc/, and what classic package managers like apt/dpkg would deliver a default of but not replace if already existing. Where you make your specific program and service configuration that is independent of the theoretically immutable package program data.
Nix does a bunch of fancy linking. The idea is that you will create your configurations from inside the nix language. Which will then be installed and setup according to the standard nix process. You can also install packages then build the configuration files as your normally would. Things like /etc directories are generated but not touched after that. I’m no expert though so I could be wrong.
However after distro hopping for like 4 years I landed on nix hand haven’t looked at anything else in 2 years. Truly the future
What does that mean for configuration? How does configuration and customization play into Nix declarations?
I’m thinking of what would usually be in
/etc/, and what classic package managers like apt/dpkg would deliver a default of but not replace if already existing. Where you make your specific program and service configuration that is independent of the theoretically immutable package program data.Nix does a bunch of fancy linking. The idea is that you will create your configurations from inside the nix language. Which will then be installed and setup according to the standard nix process. You can also install packages then build the configuration files as your normally would. Things like /etc directories are generated but not touched after that. I’m no expert though so I could be wrong.
However after distro hopping for like 4 years I landed on nix hand haven’t looked at anything else in 2 years. Truly the future
I too hope on my distros :D
And I no longer! :D nix it’s pretty sweet VERY steep learning curve though. It helps if you really understand regular Linux first.