this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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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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Looks at M2 macbook running NixOS
Ok maybe I do need help.
Someone was saying in a linux hate post yesterday that linux is not viable for beginners because it is not easy to install arch linux on a vm on their old macbook. Lmao
My kid (not even a teenager) uses Linux daily. And not in a coy "he's using a chromebook" way. He's using full-blown NixOS on a laptop I set up for him. Could he have set it up? No, but he's a child. Has day to day use presented him with any difficulties whatsoever? Nope. He figured out gnome purely by instinct in a day. He goes between macos and windows and linux effortlessly, because he's a reasonably intelligent human being.
But, yes, half the time the "linux is hard" crowd seem to be basing their evaluation on things you would rarely do on a mac or windows machine. These days, install Mint, Fedora, or, hell, even Nixos or Endeavor, choose the defaults, and you will very likely have a perfectly usable, intuitive system.
A real linux installation or darwin-nix? If the former, what steps did you follow? 👀
The real thing. https://github.com/tpwrules/nixos-apple-silicon/
I wouldn't say it's something anyone can do (no graphical installer and updating is a bit manual) and it's all dependent on the Asahi folks, bless them, but it took me about 20 minutes, other than whipping up a machine-specific configuration.nix and home.nix (about 20 more minutes on either side of the installation). All of the instructions were clear, though I will warn that some of them are not well presented in that there are instructions that should be bullet points that are stuffed into paragraphs. Nothing remotely exotic though--that's all in the Asahi stuff that is wonderfully hidden from the view.