Noob question. Apps startup time. Nix vs Native vs Flatpak

tmkmch

I installed Solus Linux 4.7 with Gnome flavour. I installed and configured also flatpak with flathub and nix store using flox.dev. The same application starts much faster which was installed using nix compared to native. Startup time of app installed via flatpak is the longest. It is understandable, because flatpak is sandbox. But I was surprised that gui apps installed via nix start much faster than native installed via eopkg. Did you have the same observation?

Staudey

tmkmch Which apps are you talking about exactly?

paracetamol

tmkmch Wild guess, but do you happen to have both an HDD and an SSD installed in your machine?

brent

had no idea you could install a nix store on Solus, install packages/apps from that store, and run them. When did this become a thing I wonder? We have our AUR now! 😉.
EDIT: flox and nix can also furnish workflow environments and container mgmt so I'm not sure I got it all right ^^^ with my statement.

yes, sandbox explains the half-second Flatpak delay. but how to explain a foreign repo app opening faster than a native app?
Depends on how you are measuring. You don't have a Nix Firefox install and a Solus Firefox installed so you wouldn't know who was faster. And how many apps are you comparing? Etc?

Original-Syn

brent
We have our AUR now!

Interesting you say that. One of the things I do for a few special apps I generally need is install Distrobox + Arch and use Boxbuddy to manage it all. You can install any AUR apps and have them act as first party GUI apps on your system. It doesn't really add any overhead other than some drive space, and the apps run great.

Bringing NIX packages obviously can take care of some of that as well.

brent

Original-Syn blows my mind we have come that far. What's next, the OBS or COPR?
(rhetorical 🙂)

tmkmch

I tested the same apps like Firefox, Libre office, Opera, Vivaldi etc. Apps installed using nix start faster than native. I didn't tested different flavours like Budgie or XFCE or KDE. I will install these flavours also and test them.

Staudey

tmkmch I tested the same apps like Firefox, Libre office, Opera, Vivaldi etc.

I'm having a hard time testing this as the native package versions of those apps open basically instantly for me (max 1 second). How long do they take on your system?

tmkmch

paracetamol Noups, everythings on the same NVME drive under Solux Linux 4.7 Gnome.

tmkmch

I installed Budgie flavour of Solus Linux 4.7. The apps are much snappier here than on Gnome flavour. I installed the same apps native and nix like Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave, LibreOffice, Pycharm CE, Vscode, Blender.
On Budgie: Native Firefox starts faster than nix-ed. For LibreOffice, Pycharm CE the speed is the same, there's no noticeably difference. But, native Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, Vscode, Blender starts slower than nix-ed versions. This is not a functional difference, but rather just a visual one.

Then I installed Gnome desktop on Budgie flavour Solus Linux 4.7. I wanted to see, if it's only the problem of Gnome. The results was the same, native Firefox was snappier, Libreoffice and Pycharm CE was the same, the rest of native apps was slower than nix-ed. But what I saw, all the apps starts slower on Gnome than on Budgie.

Next I installed KDE, the results was the same.

So generally speaking, it depends on the app.

AlphaElwedritsch

If you don't do such comparison tests, life will be more relaxed

tmkmch

AlphaElwedritsch Yeah, you're right. I did it for fun. Nothing practical. I learn nix and tried something by running gui apps through nix, only for the fun.