nixos-config VS nix-configuration

I use Nix/NixOS. My system state is a direct result of my config that is declared in a bunch of text files. For example, leaf packages that are installed system-wide are declared here: https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/e646c4ec1aac80cfdf7b8c79debcfaee70237018/packages.nix

If it matters, my distro is NixOS and here's the machine's system config: https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/95f9bb201ab4c2ab95fb3089909f5951a0646699/configs/HEPHAISTOS/default.nix

If something really goes south, I can have my entire system rebuilt automatically almost to the bit within 5-20min (mostly dependant on Internet speed) because my system is reproducible from just a bunch of text files.

Here's my desktop configuration to give you an idea: https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/0e97d9af632852e7440563a9b5976663e61071b7/desktop.nix

If you want to know more: https://nixos.org/ Here's how such a system declaration can look like: My current desktop configuration, packages "installed" system-wide.

If you're looking for a way to restore your system configuration should your drive go kaput, perhaps look into declarative means of configuration instead. With those, your system is defined by a few text files and restoring or duplicating it is trivial. If you want to stay with Arch (great distro), imperative tools like Ansible, Puppet or Chef should work. If you want to try greener pastures, look into NixOS which is what I use. All I need to restore my machine is a few text files like this one (I just clone the git repo).

It only takes https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/master/configs/HEPHAISTOS/default.nix#L14 and all these settings are applied: https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config/blob/af0960a7f7b0d6b9d775015c63a107ede6f63c82/desktop.nix

Here's the list of packages available in all my systems or my desktop configuration to give you an idea.

Set it up once precisely the way you like it, run forever. You only need slight tweaks every now and then to keep up with progress. On how many machines you want with as much shared configuration you want, any time you want. If your NixOS boot drive died, you could have a working NixOS system that's exactly[3] like the old one in a matter of minutes depending on your internet and hardware speed. (Without user data of course.) All you need is one (or a few if you prefer) lean text files that can and should be tracked in a git repo like this on: https://github.com/Atemu/nixos-config

Here’s my dotfiles where I make my own declarative module. https://github.com/corytertel/nix-configuration/tree/main/modules/windowManagers/kde

If you’re interested in my config file: https://github.com/corytertel/nix-configuration/blob/main/config/kde/shared.nix

I’ve used arch and it’s basically easy mode compared to nix imo. Have you not tried to do things such a derivations, overlays, etc for your configs? Flakes make things a bit easier but they’re also another thing you have to learn. I have a flake which controls my configs for both of my computers. https://github.com/corytertel/nix-configuration These are my configs