I recently moved my laptop, desktop, and a few servers from Arch Linux to NixOS with flakes and home-manager. It is amazing! The complete configuration for all machines is in a single git repository, I can share configuration between them, and a `flake.lock` file guarantees all machines are using the same version of everything. No more trying to remember what command I need to run to install and configure software and no more copying files from `/etc` between machines. Best of all, if I need to rebuild a computer from scratch or buy a new one, just running `nixos-install --flake myrepo#mymachine` configures everything so I can pick up right where I left off with an identical setup.

I also appreciate that a lot of frequently used configuration is easy to enable. For example, to install podman, the Arch wiki details a number of files in /etc you need to edit. On NixOS, just add `podman.enable = true;` to your configuration and you're done.

At this point, I think NixOS is hugely underrated and I strongly encourage anyone who is an advanced linux user to try it.

Long time Arch user here but I'm growing more interested in NixOS by the day. I'm mainly “utilitarian” in my OS choice and other things being equal, Arch's AUR packages is what keeps me using it.

How does the Nix ecosystem compare with AUR? Would you still recommend making the switch?

It should be pointed out that you can install the nix package manager in Arch (or whatever other Linux, or macOS, etc.), so you can try out nix's declarative package management without actually switching to NixOS.

Doh! You're right, I completely forgot that. Thanks for pointing it out.

I tried this on my previous laptop and ran into a number of issues once I tried to install anything with a GUI. It's fine for shells and CLI tools though. I migrated some configs over to a Nix configs under Arch, and while it was a pain to initially set up NixOS (unfamilarity), it's a lot easier doing everything else now.