When comparing NixOS vs ArchLabs Linux, the Slant community recommends NixOS for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” NixOS is ranked 19th while ArchLabs Linux is ranked 66th. The most important reason people chose NixOS is:
Atomic non-destructive upgrades / rollback of a system upgrade / declarative reproducible system configuration / unprivileged installation of packages / transparent source or binary deployment.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro State of the art package manager
Atomic non-destructive upgrades / rollback of a system upgrade / declarative reproducible system configuration / unprivileged installation of packages / transparent source or binary deployment.
Pro Minimal
You can start with a minimal environment and add packages and software to suit your needs as you go along.
Pro Reproducible system
NixOS is configured using the Nix package manager, allowing your system to be replicated and kept in sync across multiple machines. Great for keeping a laptop and desktop in sync.
Pro Robust
Packages don't break after a NixOS upgrade as they are prone to with other distros (especially Arch).
Pro All the benefits of Arch Linux
Since this is an Arch-based distribution, it has all the same benefits.
Pro Powerful AL-installer
The ArchLabs installer is very simple and gives users so many choices such as kernels, bootloaders, which extra programs to install, whether you want LVM, etc.
Pro Lightning Fast
Pro Retains the minimalism of Arch
ArchLabs provides an easy-to-use installer without including unnecessary packages by default, unlike Manjaro.
Pro Inspired by BunsenLabs, Powered by Arch
Pro Highly technical and helpful forums
Cons
Con Documentation is not good
A lot of the documentation of various functions is buried on the source code, their respective manuals, or non-existent. The documentation, the conventions, and the scattered toolchain really made searching for stuff easily missable.