SteamOS 3.5 will have a /nix directory to support the NixOS package manager. The package manager will probably not come pre-installed but the folder structure prepared, users will be able to install it without jumping through hoops.
SteamOS 3.5 will support the NixOS package manager
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/7173#issuecomment-1603858003
9 Comments
PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 3y
Is there anything significant on nix that's unavailable with Pacman or Discovery? Seems it's more like a traditional package manager with more mainline Linux repositories.
woelkchen@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 3y
Pacman isn't available on SteamOS without unlocking developer mode. Nix is intended to be used alongside the native package manager. Discover (not Discovery) on SteamOS is for Flatpak packages.
PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y
I've been in developer mode on betas for a while so I wasn't aware that wasn't the vanilla experience. Having a relatively normal Linux package manager could be nice as an easy alternative to Discover.
I'm curious what would be worth getting through nix though. I suppose anything that isn't on Discover, but I haven't had too hard a time finding what I've wanted so far.
randomaside@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 3y
I've been hearing a lot about Nix package manager, NixOS, and immutable/atomic Linux distros like BlendOS, VanillaOS, and ChimeraOS with containers and flatpaks on top.
I may be confused but I think conceptually these distributions are moving towards this idea of reproducibility with a strong immutable core OS for the sake of stability. I can see why this would be perfect for an appliance like the Deck.
The idea of a rolling distribution where my configuration simply survives upgrades forever ... sounds like a dream come true. Is it possible?
woelkchen@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3y
Flatpak is for sandboxed graphical applications and it's absolutely great for that but sometimes one might want more. Could be simple things like an alternative CLI text editor or youtube-dl.
PhantomPhanatic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3y
Looking into it, it sounds like packages installed with nix would be persistent across updates too. That's definitely a game changer. I've had a few things break on updates and it's always a pain.
klay@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 3y
oooh, this would be SUPER helpful; most of what I want is available as a flatpak but for the few things that aren't, nix would be a great tool to install user apps without messing with "valve's area".
weeezes@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 3y
awesome
kelvie@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 3y
That's amazing. Now when I get paged while playing Diablo I can just switch to desktop mode and
nix-env -i awscli.