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There was a time when Nixpkgs was smaller than the AUR. And, until recently, Nixpkgs was larger than the AUR but still smaller than the combination of the main Arch repos with the AUR.
As it turns out, the current total package count for Arch and the AUR is 85,819.
For nixpkgs unstable, that number is 88,768.
NixOS 23.05 Stable has 83,740.
And considering the mention of 9,147 new packages and 4,015 removed packages, that would mean that 23.11 would have a total of:
88,872 packages. This is more than the current figures for Nixpkgs unstable, but this is going off data from separate sources (NixOS devs and repology, with repology still being slightly outdated)
And, as such, I think it's fair to say the winner is (drumroll please)....
The USER for having such incredible distributions, giving him the vast breadth of choice for what distro matches their workflow best.
To be fair, the level of support for packages in nixpkgs is inconsistent. My config has a number of backported packages overlaid on top of nixpkgs where upstream is not up to date enough for me.
In my 4 years of intensively using Nix/NixOS, I've never used the NUR. I wouldn't know what for tbh. as it's easier for everyone to have things in Nixpkgs instead.
Nix packages arent containerized by default. But since every depenedency is clearly defined. there are tools wrap packkages using bublewrap, or tools build layered docker imahes
I'm new to NixOS. Do I have to do anything extra to update NixOS? Or do I just update my flake and run nixos-rebuild switch --flake like I normally do to update packages?
If you are using flakes you should check your flakes' inputs (probably the one called nixpkgs) and then change the URL to match the channel for 23.11.
Finally, you should of course rebuild your system.
Yeah. The UX is not in a great state. This is not an euphemism though, I think the UX is OK for advanced users, but getting used to it takes time.
Honestly given the choice I prefer the status quo, good fundamentals and clunky UX compared to the other way around – it's all volunteer work and that's a finite resource.