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Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

zero-to-nix.com

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Re: Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

#21

Post by wingmanjd »

cole-h wrote: post #11
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #4

Nix and NixOS have had a similar sort of effect on me as Gentoo and FreeBSD have in the past. They have helped to expand my consciousness in the realm of systems administration and have helped me achieve new heights with my low latency audio configuration. For this reason, Nix and NixOS have become indispensable to my workflow. NixOS introduces a new form of declarative configuration, fusing Gentoo's highly configura…

I'd also suggest that, once you _do_ feel comfortable enough to step foot into NixOS territory, that you start off by version-controlling your configuration. It doesn't necessarily have to be public, but I've found it very helpful in the past when I've had to debug various issues due to misconfiguration by me.

Do you symlink your config repo to /etc/nixos or something else? So far, I've just been rsyncing my config repo folder after I modify it.

Re: Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

#22

Post by unshavedyak »

jhoechtl wrote: post #2

I read of Nix now and then. Seems its more than a fad. Why should I invest time? What makes it stand out?

For me, i use it on my Desktop because i love things being stable for my work environment. I don't want an upgrade over the weekend to cause problems come Monday morning.

I've had my system get "borked" on updates in the past, and Nix lets me revert very very easily. Also upgrading libraries for one App can easily be isolated from breaking other applications and etc.

It's got tons of flaws (to me), but the core idea to me is a foundation for a super stable system. I both love Nix and hate it. It's so good that myself, a large critic of the OS, still uses it.

Re: Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

#23

Post by aendruk »

jhoechtl wrote: post #2

I read of Nix now and then. Seems its more than a fad. Why should I invest time? What makes it stand out?

NixOS has been my daily driver for just over a year and my impression is that it’s still all a big experiment. A promising one, but far from a polished product so try to avoid that framing.

The Nix community is doing exciting work but in the long run I wouldn’t be surprised to see another project take its place in the mainstream once the ideas have matured. The current space has much of the same chaos as projects like Oh My Zsh or Spacemacs and needs to be treated more like an active hobby.

All that considered, the core paradigm is a breath of fresh air and I can’t imagine going back to a mutable system.

Re: Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

#24

Post by grawp »

colordrops wrote: post #5
jhoechtl wrote: post #2

I read of Nix now and then. Seems its more than a fad. Why should I invest time? What makes it stand out?

It's basically checking in your OS to git. It never gets crufty and almost never breaks. There's a lot more to it but those are the core ideas and I'm typing on my phone.

NO. He asked about Nix NOT NixOS... do not conflate them together. Nix an extremely generic tool for much much much more than what you have said.

Re: Zero to Nix, an unofficial, opinionated, gentle introduction to Nix

#27

Post by grhmc »

Athas wrote: post #14
grhmc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, Jorge! I think the nix3 interface and the Flakes solve a lot of UX problems. Maybe we could do a bit of a user study, to see where you get hung up?

Don't those still give you a terrible error message if you use them in a default config?

They do, and using the installer we recommend enables Flakes and the Nix command out of the box: https://zero-to-nix.com/start/install#up.

We think flakes and the new interface are the future, and we're working to bring it home.

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