cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/35084396

Hej lemmings!

Quick question for you all: do you stick with the same distro across your PC, laptop, and server, or do you pick different ones based on the device and what you’re doing?

For me, I’ve been mixing and matching depending on the use case, but I’m starting to think it’d be nice to just have one distro (or at least one family like Fedora or Debian) running everywhere. That way I wouldn’t get confused about default settings or constantly have to look up flags for different package managers.

Right now my setup is:

  • Gaming rig: CachyOS
  • Laptop: AuroraOS
  • NAS: Unraid
  • Various project servers: DietPi, Debian, Alpine etc…

I feel like NixOS might be the only distro that could realistically handle all these use cases, but I’m a bit scared of the learning curve and the maintenance work it’d take to migrate everything over.

Am I the only one who feels like having “one distro to rule them all” would be nice? How do you guys handle your setups? All ears! 😊

  • pheusie@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    do you stick with the same distro across your PC, laptop, and server, or do you pick different ones based on the device and what you’re doing?

    Definitely the latter.

    constantly have to look up flags for different package managers.

    FWIW, you don’t have to choose the distro’s package manager. While it makes sense in most cases, it’s definitely not a requirement. And that’s where the nix package manager comes in. Unbeknownst to some, you don’t have to be on NixOS to access it, simply because it’s probably already found in the repository of the distro you’re using. So, frankly, you can even expect that it’s well-supported.

    I feel like NixOS might be the only distro that could realistically handle all these use cases

    FWIW, containerfiles used in conjuction with bootc to boot your OS from, do allow differentiation within a single containerfile; i.e. specific changes are only applied for the designated target. This is accomplished by virtue of a single containerfile being able to produce many (very) different container images to boot from. So, in short, other avenues exist and bootc happens to be one I know. Note that bootc doesn’t (necessarily) push you towards Fedora(-derivatives). Despite being very new (and perhaps somewhat experimental), Bootcrew does provide container images for other distros; some of which have already spawned multiple derivatives of their own. See e.g. Tartaria and XeniaOS.

    but I’m a bit scared of the learning curve and the maintenance work it’d take to migrate everything over.

    My 2 cents: if you’re interested in NixOS, just start out with installing nix on any distro. And see where that takes you ;) !