What’s new in NixOS 19.09:
- Highlights:
- In addition to numerous new and upgraded packages, this release has the following highlights:
NixOS is an independent, functional and usable GNU/Linux distribution that uses the KDE Plasma Workspaces and Applications as its default desktop environment. It is called NixOS because it’s based on Nix, a purely functional package management system.
Nix is similar to APT and YUM
Similar to APT and YUM, the Nix package manager makes sure that no package is broken during upgrades. It also manages boot scripts, configuration files, and other similar files that are involved in the package management of a Linux distribution.
It can only be installed, no live mode!
The CD allows users to install the NixOS operating system, but it can’t be used directly from the live media. It provides support for Nvidia, ATI and Intel graphics cards, LVM (Logical Volume Manager) and RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). Currently, NixOS can be installed on both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures, it uses some GTK applications, but most of the user interface is KDE based. Automatic hardware detection will make sure that all your hardware components are recognized and configured during the installation process.
KDE is the default desktop environment
Its KDE desktop environment is mostly untouched, providing all the applications that one needs on a daily basis, such as the Dolphin file manager, the Konqueror web browser, the KMail email client, Dragon Player, and much more. All the software packages are managed by the state of the art Nix package manager software, and there’s no /bin, /sbin, /lib, /usr filesystem hierarchy. Everything is stored in the /nix/store directory.
Contains popular Linux applications
Those of you who want to use a different desktop environment, can do so by installing Xfce, Awesome, IceWM, i3, and even the Ratpoison window manager. Popular Linux applications, such as Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, and VLC Media Player can also be installed in NixOS. Among other strong points of NixOS, we can mention multi-user package management, reproducible system configurations, atomic and reliable upgrades, and rollbacks, which allow users to safely roll back to a previous configuration.
