It's been about a year since I switched to #NixOS and I must say it's the #Linux distro I've had the least problems with. Which says a lot considering I've also used Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Manjaro, all of which put more emphasis on being easy to use, besides a bunch of nerd shit like Arch, Gentoo and Exherbo.
My experience is that a distro is either easy to install and configure on a basic level but absolutely shits itself or presents many blockades when you attempt to veer off the beaten path (by installing a version of a package that is not outdated by 3 years, for example), like the former ones, or it's just painful for everything, basic or not, and actively discourages its use, like the latter ones.
NixOS is the exception, apart from the initial installation and configuration which require experience, all system management is reduced to changing a single well-designed config file and letting the nix modules do their thing.
And it works. Great distro, recommend, 9/10 (point substracted for occasionally inadequate documentation)
@khird I was worried about that, but no, I haven't yet encountered a single missing package. I assume it's a combination of a package system that's nice to work with and a dedicated community.
@Amikke
I can't seem to find the diagram, but NixOS actually has the most number of native apps available of all distributions. Arch's claim to fame is AUR, which are Arch User apps (aka not native).
And with the latest release of 22.05 it is actually quite a breeze to create the initial installation, with Calamares ✌️😎
@khird
@RyuKurisu here is the graph: https://repology.org/repositories/graphs
NixOS is way out there far away from most popular distros.
You can search packages here: https://search.nixos.org/packages
@Amikke My bad, I accidentally confused Manjaro with the god like Gentoo. Ubuntu is sketchy, Mint is bloated Ubuntu and Manjaro is just not good. Manjaro has only impressed me on two very specific devices and that's because it was custom made for them.
Debian used to be my recommendation but I hate flatpacks and a lot of garbage that has been tossed into distros.
Gentoo is actually worth the effort. I run Guix because it's FSF Approved and it really has a lot of new and interesting features.
@AmpBenzScientist my main problem with Gentoo is that its needs and ambitions outgrew the capabilities of Portage, and the way packages are hacked together using plain Bourne-shell-compatible shell scripts and variables and everything is managed using the same makes everything awkward. Exherbo with its Paludis package manager is imo basically a direct upgrade over Gentoo with Portage (except the issue of having a smaller community), and it addresses some of the problems, but it's still not enough and eventually crashes against the same wall as Gentoo - there's only so much you can accomplish using flags and slots working on the same global configuration, and the awkwardness of writing packages for it means there are only a couple of greybeards doing it and there are many missing.
NixOS fixes a bunch of those problems. It sandboxes packages so that conflicting ones can live peacefully side by side without the need for slot shenanigans, and it uses the amazing Nix language for writing packages and configuring the system. This also means that instead of having to manually merge config changes you can just write your configuration once and let the nix module translate it into the updated configuration files on every update. It's an amazing quality of life improvement without sacrificing hackability.
@Amikke that was a good enough recommendation for me to start researching it - so far I'm reasonably happy with Mint but you are absolutely correct that installing up-to-date packages can be a real pain. It looks like NixOS has its own specific package system though. Can you share how you've found that to work? I've found that most of the little bespoke distros that don't just inherit a major distro's repositories leave out software I want.