this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Gaming

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You’ll Soon Be Able to Install Nix Packages on Your Steam Deck (linuxgamingcentral.com)
submitted 1 year ago by thingsiplay@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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This would solve a major issue with SteamOS. The SteamOS itself is immutable/read only as you know. This means, one cannot install or make changes to the core system (it is possible, but that is temporarily until update will revert those changes back). That is why we have the Flatpak support. But many software are not available there (especially CLI tools, if you use them).

This is where the Nix package system comes into play. In short, it allows for installation of programs without touching the immutable part of SteamOS in a controlled and safely manner. These would persist even on SteamOS system updates. For a better explanation, have a look here: https://nixos.org/guides/how-nix-works.html

Valve confirmed: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7173#issuecomment-1603858003 that Nix package support will be integrated into SteamOS! That's huge. In example I have tools which I cannot distribute easily for Steam Deck users, because Flatpak does not support CLI apps. Nix would solve this issue!

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[–] sofinzki@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

This is probably not something I will make use of at all in the near future but I still absolutely love that they are doing this! Valve is really carving out a path forward for linux as a whole and eventually normal folks - not just enthusiasts - will be able to drop Windows completely.