this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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I keep seeing people mentioning NixOS, what's so unique about it that people like?
Biggest package repository, a very strange package manager that lets you reproduce exact environment for any package. But also takes a bunch of time to understand and you basically have to learn a whole new programming language to use it if you don't want to copy-paste examples.
Bigger than aur?
Exact envitonmen? Like flatpacks?
Kind of like flatpacks but it's done with symlinks and fancy changes to the build systems. I think it fits better for the developer environment.
Nix has "over 80 000 packages," according to their website. The AUR has 85719, so they're pretty close. This website seems out of date, as the AUR is listed as having 73914 packages, but it says that Nix is bigger. Either way, there's a lot.