Best applications for the operating system NixOS

Introduction

In the realm of NixOS every detail matters from declarative configuration to atomic upgrades. This article unveils a curated selection of the best applications that elevate productivity creativity and system management to luxurious heights. Each entry unfolds with in depth exploration of features installation tips and usage insights designed for discerning NixOS enthusiasts.

Desktop Applications

1 Window Managers and Desktop Environments

• i3

  Lightweight tiling window manager ideal for keyboard driven workflows. Offers seamless integration with NixOS modules and extensive customization options.

• KDE Plasma

  Feature rich graphical environment combining elegance and performance. Leverage NixOS declarative configuration to enable discover powerdevil and sddm in a single declarative block.

• GNOME

  Polished interface with built in accessibility features and polished workflows. Declare gnome3 packages alongside extensions and gdm in an atomic system generation.

2 Productivity Suites

• LibreOffice

  Comprehensive office suite providing word processing spreadsheets presentations and more. Enable with defaultExtensions for grammar checking and PDF export support.

• OnlyOffice

  Modern collaboration centered suite featuring high compatibility with Microsoft formats. Use nixpkgs to pin to stable release channels.

• Joplin

  Robust note taking with end to end encryption and synchronization across devices. Configure with systemd user services for automatic synchronization at user login.

Development Tools

1 Integrated Development Environments

• Visual Studio Code

  Extensible code editor with rich plugin ecosystem. Install code package alongside extensions configured via settings json generated in home manager.

• IntelliJ IDEA

  Professional IDE supporting Java Kotlin and more. Pin to ultimate edition with license key injected securely through NixOS secrets.

2 Command Line Tools

• Oh My Zsh

  Powerful shell framework enhancing zsh with themes plugins and aliases. Enable via home manager enabling all required plugins at once.

• Tmux

  Terminal multiplexer that allows split panes session management and scripting. Declaratively configure status bar and key bindings in nix configuration.

• Neovim

  Fork of Vim with improved plugin architecture and embedded LSP support. Manage plugins declaratively with vim config loaded through nix.

Media and Graphics

1 Image Editing and Design

• GIMP

  Advanced image manipulation suite with layers masks and filters. Launch with custom plugin paths defined in environment variables for easy extension.

• Inkscape

  Vector graphic editor perfect for illustrations logos and diagrams. Available as flatpak or native package ensuring reproducible builds on NixOS.

2 Multimedia Players

• VLC

  Universal media player that handles virtually any format with ease. Integrate with desktop environment file associations declaratively.

• mpv

  Minimalistic video player with high quality video output and scripting support. Configure input conf and lua scripts via nix.

System Utilities

1 Backup and Synchronization

• Restic

  Fast efficient backup program with encryption support. Automate backups using systemd timers declared in NixOS config.

• Rclone

  Command line tool to sync files and directories to cloud storage. Declare remote configurations securely in nix store.

2 Monitoring and Optimization

• htop

  Interactive process viewer showing resource usage. Install and alias under convenient shortcut for quick system inspection.

• iotop

  Monitor disk IO usage per process. Use nix to build with elevated privileges and enable via sudoers.

Comparison Table

Conclusion

Each application showcased here brings a unique dimension to a NixOS system. From powerful desktops to cutting edge development tools and robust utilities these offerings can be orchestrated seamlessly through declarative configuration. Embrace the luxury of reproducibility and tailored environment management that only NixOS can deliver.

Official website of NixOS