this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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Arch or NixOS? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 11 months ago by CatLikeLemming@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I've been here a week ago already asking if Arch would be fine for a laptop used for university, as stability is a notable factor in that and I'm already using EndeavourOS at home, but now I'm curious about something else too - what about Arch vs NixOS?

I heard that NixOS is pretty solid, as due to the one file for your entire system format you can both copy and restore your system easily whenever, apart from your normal files and application configurations of course.

Are there any major downsides to NixOS compared to Arch apart from the Arch Wiki being a bit less relevant? I'd also lose access to the AUR, but admittedly I don't think I've ever actually needed it for anything, it's just nice to have. Also, since NixOS has both rolling release and static release and you can mix and match if you wanna get packages from unstable or not, I'm not losing Arch's bleeding edge, which is nice.

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[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Arch breaks all the time. It has to because upstream is usually always changing so breakage is inevitable.

Though a person's mileage on this may vary (less update frequency, less no of programs etc.), the constant thing about rolling release is that breakages within software releases are to be expected.

[–] KISSmyOS@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Arch breaks all the time.

Is that your recent personal experience?

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

No. Not a recent opinion. I've used Arch for more than 3 years now.

[–] fxdave@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Ofc, Arch users should learn how to resolve a package conflict, or how to downgrade packages, or generally how to debug the system. Sometimes you also have to migrate config files.

On the other hand, as an arch user, I can tell that it mostly just works. If you customize heavily an ubuntu, it will break more likely. And while you can fix an arch, you probably have to reinstall an ubuntu.

Moreover, Arch has a testing repository which is not the default.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My experience with Arch is that it has been very solid and stable. It is just “makes sense” for the most part and so issues are very resolvable.

If you use the AUR, you can get times when packages need to be excluded ( held back ) in order for the overall system to update. I do not see that as an Arch problem and it is easy to handle.

One thing that is an Arch problem is that, if you do not update often enough, you can end-up with outdated keys that prevent you from installing before packages. The solution is just to update the keyring before updating everything else but this is confusing for a new user and kind of dumb in my opinion. I feel like the system should do this for me.

Ironically, I find Arch is most stable if you update very frequently ( which makes the updates smaller and more incremental ). I do a quick update almost every day without any fear of breaking my system. Any “problems” I have had with Arch updates are trying to update a system that has not been updated forever. Even then, it is just a bit more work.

Another thing that can happen if you leave it too long is that packages will have been replaced by newer ones. Keeping up to date means there are only going to be a small number of those. An update after a year can run into a surprising number of them.

I dug out an old laptop that had Arch on it from 3 years before. Updating it was annoying but in the end it was totally up to date and stable.

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Arch is not stable but it's easy to fix issues arising from its rolling release nature. One of the ways being utilizing the AUR packagedowngradefor easy package version rollbacks. I should also note that the most common reason for Arch breaking is rarely ever because of the distro itself but because upstream has introduced breaking changes. You can see this when an upstream feature breaks in Arch, then Fedora picks up the same bug a few weeks/month later.

Arch is however the most solid distro I've ever used since I began using Linux many many moons ago.

One thing that is an Arch problem is that, if you do not update often enough, you can end-up with outdated keys that prevent you from installing before packages. The solution is just to update the keyring before updating everything else but this is confusing for a new user and kind of dumb in my opinion. I feel like the system should do this for me.

Arch already does this. Could be that your install has the keyring refresh service disabled but I've had it enabled for a good while now and I've never encountered that outdated pacman keyring issue.