Software Alternatives & Reviews

NixOS VS Portage

Compare NixOS VS Portage and see what are their differences

NixOS logo NixOS

25 Jun 2014 . All software components in NixOS are installed using the Nix package manager. Packages in Nix are defined using the nix language to create nix expressions.

Portage logo Portage

Portage is source-based package manager used by Gentoo and its descendants. It controls all process from fetching source through building it, installing into clean environment to "merging" with already installed software.
  • NixOS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-12
  • Portage Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

NixOS

Categories
  • Front End Package Manager
  • Package Manager
  • Linux Tools
  • MacOS Tools
  • Programming
Website nixos.org
Details $

Portage

Categories
  • Developer Tools
  • Package Manager
  • Front End Package Manager
  • Containers As A Service
Website wiki.gentoo.org
Details $-

NixOS videos

First Impression of the NixOS Installation Procedure

More videos:

  • Review - Introduction to NixOS - Brownbag by Geoffrey Huntley
  • Review - NixOS 18.03 - A Configuration-focused GNU+Linux Distro

Portage videos

Nursing video 2 portage learning, prerequisite courses

More videos:

  • Review - THOROGOOD 1892 PORTAGE Series #814-6522 [ THE BOOT GUY REVIEWS ]
  • Review - Thorogood Portage Boots Review in Indigo Chromexcel

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NixOS and Portage)
Front End Package Manager
Developer Tools
81 81%
19% 19
Package Manager
92 92%
8% 8
Containers As A Service
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare NixOS and Portage

NixOS Reviews

The 10 Best Immutable Linux Distributions in 2024
Why it’s on the list: NixOS uses the Nix package manager, which treats packages as isolated from each other. This unique approach to package management virtually eliminates “dependency hell”.

Portage Reviews

We have no reviews of Portage yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, NixOS seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 242 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

NixOS mentions (242)

  • Tools for Linux Distro Hoppers
    Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Ask HN: Could Nix make crypto mining more efficient?
    - it reduces bloat, because you can generate an environment or OS image with only the software needed to run a specific program or service My guess is that a big efficiency gain would come from the second point, because you don't waste CPU on code that you don't use. Does this make sense? Has anyone explored this? [0]: https://nixos.org. - Source: Hacker News / 27 days ago
  • Go + Hypermedia - A Learning Journey (Part 1)
    1) Setting up the development environment - I currently use devcontainers for most things, but may also dig into nix -> isolated, portable, repeatable development environment 2) Exploring Echo - understand routing, requests, response, etc. 3) Incorporate Templ - integration with Echo, template composition, etc. 4) Integrating TailwindCSS - config for use with Echo/Templ, development cycle, deployment, etc. 5)... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Nixing Technological Lock In
    "Your greatest challenge lies ahead -- and downwards..." Oh, wait a second, my bad, that's the quote on the box cover for Zork I: ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/Zork_I_box_art.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork ) What you really wanted was a link to where you could download Nix/NixOS -- and/or learn more about it! Here ya go! https://nixos.org/ "Your greatest challenge lies ahead --... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • What it was like working for Gitlab
    Semi-related, I would recommend to anyone who is a Linux native to try to find some kind of "minimum viable setup" that is really really easy for you to run out of VirtualBox or Parallels or something for this reason. No matter where you go, you know you can have a suite of tools which work just as you want them to there. Being able to tear it down and rebuild it quickly is also a great way to deal with debugging... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
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Portage mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Portage yet. Tracking of Portage recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing NixOS and Portage, you can also consider the following products

GNU Guix - Like Nix but GNU.

Conda - Binary package manager with support for environments.

Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS

pkgsrc - pkgsrc is a framework for building over 17,000 open source software packages.

Chocolatey - The sane way to manage software on Windows.

Pacman - Pacman was developed to be the package manager for Arch Linux, and is also used by KDE-focused Chakra Linux.