Six months after its previous 24.05 “Uakari” release, the new stable version of NixOS 24.11, codenamed “Vicuna,” is officially here. Targeted at advanced users, NixOS is a unique Linux distro that emphasizes reproducibility and reliability by using the Nix package manager.
For the unfamiliar, Nix itself can also be used on other Linux systems and even on macOS, making it a powerful tool for software package management and system configuration. Now, let’s move to the new features. This release is packed with new content and updates, with the most striking of them being:
- Broader Software Selection: NixOS 24.11 includes 8,141 new packages and updates for 20,975 existing ones, ensuring users can always access the latest software. Meanwhile, 3,970 outdated packages were removed to maintain a secure and efficient system.
- Improved Desktop Environments: GNOME has been updated to version 47, โDenver,โ which now supports accent colors, small screen compatibility, and hardware-accelerated screen capture. The KDE Plasma environment also received a significant update, moving to Plasma 6.2 with enhanced stability and new features.
- Better Darwin (macOS) Support: Significant work has been done to bring improved compatibility with macOS systems. This includes redesigning the build environment to more closely resemble a native Xcode toolchain, which allows for better software building without as much reliance on hacks or patches.
- Convenience for AMD Users: AMD GPU users will appreciate the new convenience options for configuring AMDโs open-source drivers. Now, you can easily configure AMDVLK (AMDโs Vulkan driver) through NixOSโs module system, allowing for greater control and enabling experimental features.
- From PulseAudio to PipeWire: The default audio server has officially transitioned from PulseAudio to PipeWire for most graphical sessions. PipeWire is more modern, capable, and ready for new audio standards, but donโt worryโPulseAudio is still available for those who prefer to stick with the classic.
- PostgreSQL Update: PostgreSQL now defaults to version 16, bringing more features and performance improvements for those relying on this popular database.
- MacOS Minimum Requirements Changing: With this release, Nixpkgs will soon drop support for older macOS versions (10.12 to 10.15). If you’re still using an older version, nowโs a good time to consider upgrading or switching to NixOS.
Furthermore, NixOS 24.11 also introduces several new modules, expanding what users can do out of the box:
- Coral.ai Edge TPU Devices: Added support for Coral.ai USB and PCIe hardware for machine learning tasks.
- Cyrus IMAP Server: A new email, contacts, and calendar server option for enthusiasts and businesses alike.
- Wayland Session Manager (UWSM): Manage your Wayland compositors in a more streamlined way, perfect for Wayland fans looking for more control.
- Collabora Online: Users can now easily set up Collabora Online, an office suite based on LibreOffice, for real-time document collaboration.
- Pingvin Share: Pingvin Share is now available as a self-hosted file-sharing platform alternative to services like WeTransfer.
However, with all these improvements come some breaking changes. For example, Nixpkgs now requires Nix version 2.3.17 or newer. The NVIDIA driver also no longer defaults to the proprietary version for recent modelsโyou’ll need to set that explicitly if needed.
Additionally, older CUDA versions are deprecated, and several outdated packages and features have been removed to streamline the system.
So, if youโre planning to upgrade to this release, be sure to check out the full release notes to learn more about any compatibility issues you might encounter and how to address them.
For more information, visit the announcement or check out the releaseโs highlights here for a complete list of changes. The distro is available for download in three variants: with GNOME and Plasma desktops and as a Minimal installation image for 64-bit AMD/Intel and ARM architectures.
