Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Nix vs Bliss OS, the Slant community recommends Bliss OS for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Bliss OS is ranked 50th while Nix is ranked 75th. The most important reason people chose Bliss OS is:
Comes with a taskbar launcher and the Pixel launcher.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro No side effects when building packages
Nix is a purely functional package management system. This means that the act of building a package does not have side effects, such as destructively updating or deleting files that may be used by other packages.
Pro Isolated development environments
Nix allows the creation of project-specific shell and build environments which are isolated from the rest of the system. These environments are defined declaratively to ensure reproducibility.
Pro Can replace docker in some places
Pro Can use multiple versions of the same package
Because of the functional approach it takes, Nix makes it easy for systems to use multiple versions of the same package simultaneously, and ensure that updating or removing a package can't break other packages.
Pro The configuration works on "All machines"
No more of the traditional: "it works on my machine". When it says reproducible, this is the real deal.
Pro Extra launchers
Comes with a taskbar launcher and the Pixel launcher.
Pro Rooted with a few clicks
Similarly to android-x86, it's rooted with just a few clicks, thus allowing the use of AdAway and other Ad Blockers.
Pro Google Play Store
Google Play Store is installed by default.
Pro ARM Virtualization
Like android-x86, it comes with ARM virtualization support, so you can run many Android ARM apps on your x-86 device.
Pro Simple Linux distro
Like ChromiumOS it has a very simple(stipped down) user interface that is easy to understand and use.
Pro Android Apps
There exist an app for any task.
Pro Unique
It is unique compared to taditional GNU-based Linux distributions.
Pro Multi-platform
Android is available for PCs, Phones, Tablets, TVs and even Clocks.
Pro Familiar UI/Design
Everyone who owns an android device already know the OS.
Pro Fully opensource
It is fully opensource and there is no company behind it.
Cons
Con Does not work well for services on non-NixOS systems
When using Nix with anything other than NixOS you can run into difficulties with trying to start up services. For example, you can install docker with Nix, but it won't integrate with the host system's systemd leaving you to handcraft awkward workarounds in order to start the background service that docker requires. This seems like a critical flaw when using Nix on anything that is not NixOS, and it's unfortunate because this affects many of the packages many users would be most interested in using Nix to handle.
Con Steep learning curve
Con Cannot handle filetypes that have different semantics across different versions
While the functional approach that Nix takes is great for sandboxing binary artifacts of packages, it seriously lacks any power in handling configuration files or user data. It's difficult to upgrade and downgrade files where semantics and syntax can change between versions. Especially in Debian/Ubuntu it can cause severe problems where the upgrade process blocks and the user needs to resolve the 3-way merge.
Con Feels slightly over-complicated
Con Limited hardware support
Like android-x86, it has limited hardware support.
Con Not for power users
Android is designed for everyone so it might be a bit limited for power users.
