# What are the USPs of each operating system?

**URL:** <https://forum.devtalk.com/t/what-are-the-usps-of-each-operating-system/887>\
**Category:** General Dev Chat\
**Tags:** dev-environments, opinions, operating-systems\
**Created:** [22 June 2020 03:19 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/what-are-the-usps-of-each-operating-system/887 "2020-06-22T03:19:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![NobbZ](https://forum.devtalk.com/user_avatar/forum.devtalk.com/nobbz/32/114_2.png) [@NobbZ](https://forum.devtalk.com/u/NobbZ)\
**Post date:** [22 June 2020 05:30 UTC](https://forum.devtalk.com/t/what-are-the-usps-of-each-operating-system/887/2 "2020-06-22T05:30:26Z")

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In nixOS my USPs are its reproducability and its “integrated toolchain manager”.

1. Backing up and restoring `/etc/nixos` is enough to re-install all system relevant software, while backing up and restoring `~/.config/nixpkgs` is enough to install user related programs and their configuration.
2. In each project I can have a `shell.nix` or a `default.nix` which describes the development environment. Usually one loads this environment manually, though tools around that have been developed which make me able to enter the environment on dir change. as well as aggressive caching of those environments.

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