NixOS is a unique take on Linux, in that everything (including the kernel, applications, system packages, and configuration files) is built by the Nix package manager. And by isolating every application from one another, the developers have achieved a distribution without using /bin, /sbin, /lib, or /usr directories. Instead, all packages are stored within /nix/store.
With the release of NixOS 22.5 9,345 new packages have been added and 10,666 have been updated. This was achieved, thanks to 1,611 contributors and 46,727 commits. Impressive.
This new release includes Nix 2.8, which fixes several issues, improves usability, and bolsters performance. The biggest change to Nix comes by way of the flakes experimental features, which allows you to specify code dependency in a declarative way by listing them (in JSON format) within a flake file. With the help of the nix fmt command, which is used to correctly format (using the formatter.<system> formatter) a flake.
NixOS 22.5 also includes a new graphical installer, which is based on the Calamares project, to make installing NixOS considerably easier.
Download your copy of NixOS[1] and make sure to read the official release notes[2] to find out more of what’s included in this latest iteration.
