Nix vs Endeavour OS
When comparing Nix vs Endeavour OS, the Slant community recommends Endeavour OS for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Endeavour OS is ranked 21st while Nix is ranked 75th. The most important reason people chose Endeavour OS is:
Lean, fast and surprisingly stable.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion 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 Good overall system quality and performance
Lean, fast and surprisingly stable.
Pro Great hardware support
Pro No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything
The user can do whatever he wishes because the distro IS Arch - with and easy installer and great themes.
Pro Fast and simple package management
There can only be one Package Manager (pacman) ;)
Pro Easy installer
Pro Great for low performance hardware
Easy on the specs and still blazingly fast.
Pro Lightweight
Pro Arch Linux Wiki
Being an "easy to install version of Arch" means it is exactly easy to use the famous Arch Wiki!
Pro As slim as you want it
Based on Arch, Endevour OS keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. The distro comes with no bloatware, only the necessary packages. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date.
Pro AUR support
One of the best reasons to use an Arch based distro.
You can find almost every package there is in the Linux world!
Pro Stripped down to the bone
Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware.
Pro Great XFCE implementation
Their use of themes and configuration look great!
Pro Not based on Ubuntu
Pro Cutting edge rolling release
Exactly as Arch - allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using.
Pro Support for a large variety of new hardware
Rolling release means newer, up to date, mesa and kernel versions able to handle newer hardware with better performance!
Pro Helpful community
Great team of developers and excellent forum support on their official website.
Pro Great community
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 NET installer on the way
Con Not for everyone
Con Kalu needs a little refinement
I applaud the developers to carry on the legacy of Antergos, the only niggling thing that I would appreciate is, while it's nice to see news about updates; my opinion is that once you dismiss the notifications they STAY dismissed. And just clicking on the icon brings kalu brings it to the foreground. Or have the functionality of turning off the news altogether would be well received. Good distro.
Con Same Cons that apply for Arch Linux
Since it is based on Arch, it is harder to install and can easily break.
Con Uses systemd
