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NixOS vs antiX

109 25

455 87

When comparing NixOS vs antiX, the Slant community recommends NixOS for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” NixOS is ranked 19th while antiX is ranked 57th. 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

Init-SystemSystemd

Main UsageReproducable System Configuration

Package ManagerNix Package Manager

Release SchedulePoint or Rolling

OS FamilyGNU+Linux

Official Supported Architecturesamd64, i386

Package TypeSource or Cached Binaries

Init-SystemSysVInit

Main UsageDesktop

Package ManagerDebian Package Manager

Release SchedulePoint

Based OnDebian Stable

Default Desktop EnvironmentIceWM

Release TypeBinary

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?

What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?

What are the best Linux distributions for an old machine?

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
Extremely lightweight

Has a 70-90MB memory footprint.

Pro
Quick installation

The installation procedure for antiX is quick and painless. It installs the OS and grub in no time.

Pro
Works well on 32-bit PC

Fewer distros are available to work on 32-bit machines. This works well on old Toshiba. Quick enough on older machines not to notice any lagging.

Pro
Stats appear on the desktop

Pro
Works very well on ASUS 1005HA netbook

Faster than other distros tested, including many on this list.

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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.