impermanence VS nixpkgs

You might want to set up NixOS with impermanence, with something like https://github.com/nix-community/impermanence. Install an easy to use desktop environment like ElementaryOS, and configure NixOS with or without Flatpak, if you want to give the user the ability to install new software or not. Then set up automatic updates, automatic garbage collection and you have a truly stable system.

I would not call these projects unbelievable, but they are neat.

- Opt-in state: https://github.com/nix-community/impermanence and https://grahamc.com/blog/erase-your-darlings/

That way will work - I use the impermanence module which works similarly but allows to hide mounts.

This is indeed a blind spot. Thanks for pointing that out! Silverblue -to my knowledge- doesn't do a lot to address this. Though, 3rd-party tools like Home Manager and the suite of applications developed by the folks over at uBlue might be able to limit this to a minimum. Though I'm not sure if it surpasses NixOS in this regard; for the uninitiated. Though, to my knowledge, this requires special attention and depends on the specifics of the NixOS system in question.

[3]: https://github.com/nix-community/impermanence

I have recently stumbled upon Impermanence - modules to help you handle persistent state on systems with ephemeral root storage, and the concept seems quite nice.

I haven't used it yet but nix-community/impermanence has a home-manager module that might be useful.

Some files in /etc (like saved networks) will still not be managed by NixOS, if you want to have full control over them use Impermanence

{ imports = [ (modulesPath + "/installer/scan/not-detected.nix") "${builtins.fetchGit { url = "https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware.git"; }}/system76" "${builtins.fetchGit { url = "https://github.com/nix-community/impermanence.git"; }}/nixos.nix" ];

I’ve found it most helpful to review other people’s configurations to learn Nix.

Some specific ones I really like:

https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs

https://github.com/fufexan/dotfiles

I keep a not comprehensive GitHub Stars list of Nix stuff I find here if you want more:

https://github.com/stars/heywoodlh/lists/nix

If you aren’t familiar, Nix-Darwin allows you to codify your MacOS deployments in a fashion comparable to NixOS. As a huge Nix-Darwin user myself, I have found malob’s repo extremely helpful for ideas with MacOS configuration. Nix-Darwin has made me so happy as a MacOS user. :)

Some other unsolicited tips:

1. Start with Nix flakes for configuration

2. Invest in Home-Manager before NixOS or Nix-Darwin

3. Ask people for help in Matrix or Discourse — my experience is that Nix-related folk are very welcoming and understanding

Good luck!

I don't think system.autoUpgrade will work at all with flakes since you'd need to update your flake lock file for anything to get updated. I've seen a way to do that automatically with github actions here.

https://github.com/malob/nixpkgs/discussions/6 (discussion on how to bootstrap a Flake file on Darwin)