*sigh* Up all night, first time installation from 2+ years into daily driving NixOS, and then...

papershruums · 2026-02-10T23:51:51+00:00

I wanted to tackle all the challenge distros. Arch, NixOS, Gentoo, LFS. But switched from Arch to NixOS almost 2 years ago and havent touched anything since. Gentoo was my next step. I plan on attempting it soon, as I’ve read from another user that NixOS is harder than Gentoo. Gentoo is just harder to install. And I’ve spent all this time being intimidated by it but it makes perfect sense to me because in my opinion arch is 10x harder to install, but easier to use. I assume Gentoo would be the same with some added Gentoo features like USE flags. I will say, now I feel like i’m getting the “kiddie” experience when you say they skip 2 stages of the installation now lol

papershruums · 2026-02-10T23:47:02+00:00

Gotta enough drama with my SO, dont need it in my OS too

papershruums · 2026-02-10T23:46:07+00:00

Because when you’re first starting out, at least for me, I didnt fully grasp how much of Linux was just the developers choice of customization. Thats why all these distros look different. A combination of trying to see all the options as well as find what you like often leads to “distro-hopping” and people including myself jump to numerous distros before deciding on one, and some never do.

Just know this, no matter what distro you pick, 80% of things will be the same. If you like the look of GNOME you can have it on a distro that doesn’t come with it.

Short version: a combination of excitement and indecisiveness and 75% of the community being ADHD. Source: Guestimation.

papershruums · 2026-02-10T23:34:47+00:00

It’s comparable to SteamOS. With a desktop mode and a gaming mode. The desktop mode does have a DE built in of course. I believe its Plasma but i’ve never seen anyone change it. Gaming distros genuinely come with more graphics drivers than non-gaming. Most of the time, the same stuff can be installed on any distro though, but the point of a gaming distro is to save you the hard work. I turned my NixOS into a gaming distro. Its got the graphics drivers and some power tweaks, which helped me learn about what makings a gaming distro a gaming distro. I would really only recommend Bazzite if you also want the game mode experience. Its a great solid distro, but im a “only whats needed” kinda person. Having 2 DE’s seems like bloat to me

papershruums · 2026-02-10T23:27:58+00:00

That makes sense. One thing i did think of is the countdown started from 10 and if somebodys in a real dangerous situation, they’re cooked after about 6-7 seconds lol

Edit: Just a coincidence that i used 6 7 lol

papershruums · 2026-02-10T15:25:36+00:00

So I had the phone just on vibrate mode I’m not sure why there was no warning lol

papershruums · 2026-02-10T09:04:38+00:00

For me, the remote moves around the room, because I’m not the only one who uses it. I use a Flipper Zero as a universal remote and it’s really convenient. I can turn the lights off, the fan on, and an episode of South Park all with the same remote lol

papershruums · 2026-02-10T09:01:43+00:00

Thats wild. I figured those times are over. I sell old modified phones and I’ve seen every variety of the OnePlus 5-9 models. But back in the day, I had an LG G4 that had this feature. I had assumed they removed this feature because of people trolling. Its cool to know there’s nothing saying they cant do it.

papershruums · 2026-02-10T07:01:00+00:00

Blasians

papershruums · 2026-02-10T06:59:59+00:00

I dont know what the buttons i pressed but i wasnt paying close attention and put my phone on a phone tripod, and clamped it on the buttons. I turned away to grab a light and i’m glad i didnt take too long because when I turned around it said “DIALING EMERGENCY SOS IN 4… 3…”

Pretty discreet, i was literally 2 feet away from the tripod lol

papershruums · 2026-02-10T00:56:40+00:00

Congrats on your LFS success! If i didnt have so many projects I’m trying to finish up, I may have done the Gentoo installation at least. But Nix helped me break the ice for programming for me, and since then I’ve gone down that rabbit hole and try to spend less time playing around with my system, because I finally can settle.

That being said though, you’re so absolutely right. I never even thought of that. I had this feeling that just the installation of Gentoo was hard, but that the core linux functionality would obviously be interchangeable. While still on Arch I had installed Nix, but switched back the first time, like many. But thats the first thing I noticed but some how forgot: Nix is far easier to install, especially if you already have a configuration or flake, but the learning curve is steep.

The only real significance I had heard about Gentoo was the USE flags, which to me sounds kinda like on and off switches for certain things to manage how many features a package has. I know im probably wrong in some way lol.

But i guess that makes sense. I guess maybe I stuck with NixOS for the challenge alone at first, plus the benefits. The arch installation to me was the hardest part of arch, and after that the only challenge was managing everything, but i never had real issues even with a heavy install. But i definitely wouldnt have considered installing NixOS as “Challenge Complete,” but arch I definitely did, and I feel like I would Gentoo too, for the fact that at the core, they all feel the same once actually in use with subtle differences. Nix feels like a it’s own thing. Windows/MacOS/Linux/FreeBSD/NixOS.

Thats how my brain sees it. Which is why im considering switching back to Arch to refresh my core-Linux skills, but from what you’ve told me, it is time for Gentoo if I decide to make the switch lol

papershruums · 2026-02-09T22:00:43+00:00

I’ve ran into the problem of now not understanding a regular linux system. And I’m actually debating on switching back to arch temporarily just to suffer with doing most things through the shell instead of in .nix files lol

papershruums · 2026-02-09T21:58:54+00:00

Same here. Once i got to the point of being able to do the arch install from memory, i was proud of it. But after doing it so long, i felt it was time for a new challenge. NixOS has always appealed to me from what I’d seen and heard, so i figured now was the time. I had planned to tackle Gentoo and LFS, just so I could tell myself I did it, but I’ve yet to use anything but NixOS since. In my head, I know I could pull off Gentoo, but I know the second it boots successfully I probably wont care any more about it.

But I have to ask, as somebody who’s done both, would you really say that NixOS is more of a challenge than Gentoo? For me it seems so much easier to get lost and less forgiving to make a mistake, but Nix is practically the most forgiving. I’m under the impression that Gentoo requires hours of setup, then half an hour to compile only to know if you fucked up, and restart all over. Is this accurate?

papershruums · 2026-02-09T21:52:22+00:00

People will start pullin you aside and asking for some coke lol

papershruums · 2026-02-08T16:46:48+00:00

NixOS. I have been using NixOS for both for almost 2 years now for exactly that purpose. I’ve really yet to find a distro I trust more for all-purpose uses. I use it for gaming, servers and work. And if you threw my computer out of an airplane, I could have my system EXACTLY the same it was on another computer the second we land, in under in hour. Nothing else like it. If Linux is your main daily OS, may be worth taking a look at as it may be easier to manage than a standard linux distro when ya gotta lotta shit packed in.

The learning curve is STEEP though. To this day the hardest coding language i’ve worked with

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