Fancy dipping your toes in the world of Nix, but don’t know where or how to start? Well, you’re gonna dig the Zero to Nix website.
This new resource sets out to deliver an “unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix” than that offered by existing Nix documentation and online guides — which it describes as “difficult for bringers to navigate”.
Follow the guided steps on the Zero to Nix website to install Nix on your existing Linux distro using the Nix Installer rather than the official Nix installation script more commonly recommended.
Now, I’ll level with you here: my knowledge of Nix is a little scant.
I know the basics: Nix is package manager; it can be used alongside apt or dnf, etc (or replace them entirely); it has a TON of packages available through it (more than Arch, in fact); and it boasts a bunch of buzz-wordy features like immutability, app isolation, and roll back.
Zero to Nix is also a big advocate for Nix Flakes, an experimental Nix feature the official guides swerve in favour of channels.
Side note: Nix flakes is inherently meme-able:
Now, I couldn’t tell you how to install Nix, or how to do anything with it once you have.
But now I don’t need to.
The Zero to Nix website is arguably the best on-boarding for Nix I’ve come across.
Whether you want a shallow introduction to Nix, or deeper dive in to its full capabilities, the Zero to Nix website is awash with the info you need. You’ll learn core Nix concepts, how to set up, configure, and manage software using Nix, and how to go further — so read, try, share!
→ Go visit Zero to Nix.
