Centos vs NixOS

Overview

CentOS

Stacks13.8K

Followers9.0K

Votes53

NixOS

Stacks112

Followers96

Votes12

Centos vs NixOS: What are the differences?

# Introduction
This Markdown code provides a comparison between Centos and NixOS based on key differences.

1. **Installation Process**: Centos follows a traditional installation process with a graphical user interface, while NixOS utilizes a declarative configuration system where the entire system configuration is defined in a single file and applied at once during installation.
2. **Package Management**: Centos uses the YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified) package manager for package installation and updates, while NixOS employs the Nix package manager which isolates package installations in their own directories for increased reproducibility and easier rollback.
3. **Configuration Management**: Centos relies on various configuration files scattered throughout the system, leading to potential conflicts and inconsistencies, whereas NixOS centralizes system configuration in its Nix expressions, ensuring a coherent system state with atomic changes.
4. **Rollback Capability**: In Centos, rolling back system changes is a manual and potentially error-prone process, requiring backups and thorough verification, whereas NixOS simplifies rollback by utilizing its declarative configuration system to revert to previous system states effortlessly.
5. **System Upgrades**: When upgrading Centos, users often face compatibility issues and downtime during the process, whereas NixOS seamlessly handles system upgrades by applying changes atomically, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal disruption to the system.
6. **Functional Programming Paradigm**: NixOS is built on a functional programming paradigm, encouraging users to define configurations as pure functions without side effects, promoting reproducibility, stability, and scalability in system management.

In Summary, the key differences between Centos and NixOS lie in their installation processes, package management, configuration management, rollback capabilities, system upgrades, and the functional programming paradigm they are built upon.

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Advice on CentOS, NixOS

Jerome/Zen

Software Engineer

Aug 2, 2020

Decided

Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.

CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)

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Detailed Comparison

CentOS	NixOS
The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code.	It is a Linux distribution with a unique approach to package and configuration management. Built on top of the Nix package manager, it is completely declarative, makes upgrading systems reliable, and has many other advantages.
-	DevOps-friendly; atomic upgrades and rollbacks
Statistics
Stacks 13.8K	Stacks 112
Followers 9.0K	Followers 96
Votes 53	Votes 12
Pros & Cons
Pros 16 Stable 9 Reliable 9 Free to use 6 Good support 6 Has epel packages Cons 1 Yum is a horrible package manager	Pros 3 Atomic upgrades 2 Rollback for any changes 2 Multi-user package management 2 Reproducible environment 2 Declarative system configuration
Integrations
No integrations available	Apache Tomcat PostgreSQL

What are some alternatives to CentOS, NixOS?

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Debian

Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.

Arch Linux

A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system.

Linux Mint

The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.

Linux

A clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

CoreOS

It is designed for security, consistency, and reliability. Instead of installing packages via yum or apt, it uses Linux containers to manage your services at a higher level of abstraction. A single service's code and all dependencies are packaged within a container that can be run on one or many machines.

Gentoo Linux

It is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need.

Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.

Manjaro

It is an accessible, friendly, open-source Linux distribution and community. Based on Arch Linux, it provides all the benefits of cutting-edge software combined with a focus on getting started quickly, automated tools to require less manual intervention, and help readily available when needed.

Related Comparisons

Centos vs NixOS: What are the differences?

# Introduction
This Markdown code provides a comparison between Centos and NixOS based on key differences.

1. **Installation Process**: Centos follows a traditional installation process with a graphical user interface, while NixOS utilizes a declarative configuration system where the entire system configuration is defined in a single file and applied at once during installation.
2. **Package Management**: Centos uses the YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified) package manager for package installation and updates, while NixOS employs the Nix package manager which isolates package installations in their own directories for increased reproducibility and easier rollback.
3. **Configuration Management**: Centos relies on various configuration files scattered throughout the system, leading to potential conflicts and inconsistencies, whereas NixOS centralizes system configuration in its Nix expressions, ensuring a coherent system state with atomic changes.
4. **Rollback Capability**: In Centos, rolling back system changes is a manual and potentially error-prone process, requiring backups and thorough verification, whereas NixOS simplifies rollback by utilizing its declarative configuration system to revert to previous system states effortlessly.
5. **System Upgrades**: When upgrading Centos, users often face compatibility issues and downtime during the process, whereas NixOS seamlessly handles system upgrades by applying changes atomically, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal disruption to the system.
6. **Functional Programming Paradigm**: NixOS is built on a functional programming paradigm, encouraging users to define configurations as pure functions without side effects, promoting reproducibility, stability, and scalability in system management.

Centos vs NixOS

Overview