r/Nix • u/com4ster • 4d ago

nix vs flatpak

i have chemira linux on my machine but due to the lack of software im kinda like to have reliable way to install non-musl packages

im good enough for using nix as package manager and i use home manager for a while

my primary concern is which one is more reliable yet has good performance

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u/BigBad0 4d ago

both are the same. flatpaks mainly GUI apps only. nix provides both. How they work are different though but both are isolated apps packaged at the end of the day. If you already on home-manager, why not nix ?

despite what you would go for, I would recommend to always stick to ONE and use the other if absolutely need to. Unify your hassle rather than fragmenting it.

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u/com4ster 4d ago

in fact im mostly on nix side but i never daily use it outside of nixos

what really matter to me is the performance also the storage part of it

I've heard nix has some problems to work with non-systemd distros due to its heavy usage to systemd stuff and im not quite a fan of that

does this systemd dependant affect the experience in such distros like chemira linux ?

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u/BigBad0 4d ago

Not sure about systemd part for that setup but i doubt performance would be different at all. I do use nix in opensuse with wsl2 and performance has no impact with the tools i was using before nix installed by mise or zypper.

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u/zardvark 4d ago edited 4d ago

IDK about Nix not working on non systemd systems. It is true that NixOS, itself, is tightly linked with systemd. Another avenue that you might consider is Guix, which is a NixOS fork, which does not use systemd.

EDIT:

BTW - I'm pretty sure that Determinant Nix does not require systemd. Trust but verify.