On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 03:19:36PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote: > > I'm not particularly fussy about gnome vs kde vs xfce vs anything, on most > > of my machines I run FreeBSD + fluxbox, but I do like to keep up with the > > goings on in linux so that's why I run it on the lappy. I'm looking for a > > distro that really wowed someone out there with a lightweight install, not > > too many fancy bells/whistles, that made them feel good about running this > > OS. > > I use Debian everywhere and really like it. But if you're looking for > diversity, you may want to ake a look at NixOS. It's a very interesting > distribution with a "radically" different approach.
NixOs uses the package manager Nix, which at first sight looks like the package manager I've always wanted. Brief sunmmary: Packages are defined by package descriptions, which describe *everything* needed to build and install them, right down to which specific versions of which other packages are required. When the package installer installs a package, it determines from the package description which other packages are needed, and installs them first, in case they are not already installed. Then it builds and installs the requested package. The installed packages are kept in a package store, which is capable of managing multipe versions of packages, and making them available side-by-side. Each user has a context, which describes which packages are available to him. I think it's possible for a user to have multiple contexts, but I'm not sure of this. A context seems to be implemented as a directory with lots of symbolic links into the actual package store. This different users/contgexts can have different versions of packages, and the details are all kept straight. If a user wants a new package (except ones with setuid executables) he can install it himself. If someone else has already done this, he just gets a few extra links to the one that's already there. Thus users don't waste space by installing multiple copies of identical packages. The OS itself is also described as a context. It is possible to choose which context to boot at boot time. Installing or upgrading packages results in a new context. If you discover you don't like it (maybe it crashes on boot), you can always go back to the previous one that did work simply by rebooting. Hooray! No more living in fear that the upgrade will make your system unbootable! But I've found no information about how to integrate Nix in an existing system (like Debian, with its own package manager). Or whether NixOs installation is nice to existing multiple-boot scenarios. - hendrik _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
