So I have been using PopOS/Mint for a couple of years now and I regularly listen to Linux Unplugged and have been getting some FOMO when all they talk about how great NixOS is. So I guess my default starting point is going to be a Vm through VMware. My question is: Is this a good place to start? Should I just use a basic desktop on bare metal to get it running.
I started with a distro-hopping laptop, then main laptop, then server. Was amazing journey, almost no obstacles, don’t look back. Just wait passionately for shipping of Gnome 45. Greetings to fellow Linux Unplugged listener.
I started with a server, and then a VM for the desktop environment, and then my desktop, and then everything.
In retrospect, starting with a server was a good idea. It made it easier to learn how the different pieces of NixOS work.
Using a VM was a bit of a wash in retrospect. It helped to be able to quickly iterate on a config. But it also made some things more confusing, like animations not working right in the VM out of the box.
I would suggest dual-booting or using a spare hard drive.
I changed both of my personal PC’s, including a laptop, I fucking love the fact I don’t need to check if a peogram is installed from my desktop… Now I want to yeet my ubuntu LTS server and have it in my flake too 😂 Really changes your way of thinking about machines, and I’ve always wanted this. A fresh install doesn’t feel like a fucking 10 year rollback, just setup some desktop apps/login and everything else is good to go!
Also I highly highly highly recommend using nixpkgs on popOS before jumping all the way to NixOS. The language and the concepts are a lot easier to learn one piece at a time
I highly recommend https://zero-to-nix.com/start
I started with Nix Pills and the manual and had a very bad time.
Don’t worry about the FOMO, NixOS ain’t leaving you anytime soon
IMHO just install NixOs with plasma and work from there, if you are not using for work, that’s enough, think it’s almost impossible to mess everything up in a way that you can’t recover it just by going to grub and selecting a previous configuration
I started out by moving over my daily driver once I was convinced. It was a bit rough, but it forced me to get something working sooner than later.
I’ve heard people suggest starting in a VM (you can always copy your config and keep your changes), but I’m not really a big VM fan so if you have a spare drive or free space you could always dual-boot NixOS and another distro. In the beginning just work on getting a config you like and reading about things on the manual or nixos.wiki. The Nix Pills are cool but more focus on the Nix programming language rather than the NixOS config files, so they’re cool to do sometime but not the most important.
I would prefer VMs than dual booting for a few reason:
- I can ssh to my shell in the VM from my host OS without having to setup any kind of GUI or hassles around that.
- Also, my major goal of setting up a stable system would include to use a single minimal very stable OS with exact packages for my needs. Reproducibility is a plus too for nix. I can do whatever I want in the vm and nothing would break my hostOS as long as i play around in the VM.
I would start with a virtual machine. Then, when the system is debugged, you can copy the configuration files somewhere (GitHub or other storage) and then reproduce the configuration on bare metal.