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Arch is a gateway drug to NixOS


Most Linux users cut their teeth on a "batteries included" distro. Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, or an equally easy-to-use option is a common way to get started with Linux.

You may want to try a tiling window manager or desktop environment that isn't offered out of the box, and while you can shoehorn these in, it eventually becomes easier (and cleaner) to build your system up from a minimal base than it would take to bend a pre-configured distro into shape. Rather than reading wiki pages and manually configuring services in a variety of bespoke, disjoint formats, you get a universal, functional language and tooling to manage them all with powerful abstractions that allow you to do so quickly and concisely. Most importantly, this foundation allows you to explore more exotic desktop environments, knowing the investments made in configuration are tracked and easily reproducible, and that when things go sideways, reversible.

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