I game on NixOS, ask me anything and I’ll do my best to answer :)

To answer if NixOS is immutable, kind of yes if you want it to be immutable.

It can really be whatever you want it to be. If you:

• Use flakes and
• Keep your config in Git

Your system is pinned and reproducible.

Applying the same config on any other system would result in the exact same setup. All around.

When you want to update, you update the inputs to your flake, rebuild your system and switch into the new build.

If everything is good, you commit the updated flake file and any other system can pull it to update to the exact same config state.

It is magic and cool!

Also, if you want, it can be the complete opposite.

You can switch from the stable channels (new releases bi-annually) to the unstable channel (rolling release) and configure auto-updates.

Now you have a bleeding edge system that updates daily.

It is so cool.

I get that there is a lot of terms and stuff that is unclear, but it’ll all clear up once you get into it :)

But yeah, it is a OS that revolves around config files and kind of “coding” your own system.

If that sounds like fun to you (I love it) give it a try! If that sounds daunting, maybe stick with Bazzite, CachyOS or something easy to use. NixOS is easy to work with once you get it, but so is rocket science I guess.

I am rambling. Give it a try! Or don’t! 😄

I am going to migrate our living room gaming PC, my Raspberry Pi and my server machine to NixOS once I get the chance to.

This is my Linux endgame. I am not going back from here 😄

NixOS is not really a distro like other distros. It is more like a framework of creating the perfect custom distro that fits YOU.

If you’ve read this far, you’re a champ 🙏

it can be if you want it to be. I will say though, while I do love NixOS and it’s my favourite distro, might be a bit of overkill if you just want something to game on. That said it can be done easily.

you can pretty much tailor it to however you want it. configure it how you want, however you want. Hell you could run the distro without installing anything if you so wished and still be able to game.

Or is the quintessential immutability.

Yes.

It’s also a completely different way to handle … everything.

Do not think about nixos if you want to know what to try for gaming.

Do look at it id you want to learn the ins and outs of … Well, to be honest nixos. But I’ve learned a lot about standard paths that everyone expects to be there and hell’s loose if they aren’t.

Python runs amok if it can’t write into it’s beloved lib folders, nginx is utterly confused why it can’t generate certificates on startup (read only folders), deployment dependencies are absolutely visible - and if you fick up the whole system just goes “nah, take a step back and think about what you just did”.

I’m now pushing two years on my server and I’m still not sure if I’d recommend it - but I for sure enjoy it!