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The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

discourse.nixos.org

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Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#151
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The creator of Nix soft-forked it and started a company, that sort of inevitably leads to bad vibes I think

Can’t say I blame him, given the tone of some of the convos on the discourse site.

The fork occured before most of the drama.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#152

Let's not sugarcoat it too much: NixOS is dying. Also, we see censorship running supreme again: "This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden" People need to stop censoring everything, seriously. NixOS going downwards also coincides with the rise of AI. AI slop really puts stress onto so many projects now.

I doubt this ecosystem is dying, I am pretty sure it has reached the critical mass of software where enough things depend on it that if it is to die out it needs to be replaced by something way better. Some technology is here to stay for better or for worse (Java won't die no matter how hard I'd want it to).

Also nix is one of a better languages when it comes to ai, since invalid programs just don't really run. As long as I dislike the slop aspect of ai, I can trust it to do things to my nixos system without my system breaking, which I'd never even imagine on any other os. I believe that it may be one of a few languages that will benefit from clankers, since the barrier of entry is so high, you can use it as a very reliable crutch.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#153
post #48

For anyone reading this and jumping to a broader conclusion: the Nixpkgs core team disbanding does not mean Nixpkgs or Nix is dying. It does mean that this particular structure was not sustainable, very important contributors burnt out and we need to do better, faster. We need to continue learning from this and continue building a stronger ecosystem that prioritizes the contributors who are the only reason any of thi…

Correct, but it's another domino in a broader trend that appears to have a common root. It was only a year ago that the moderation team mass resigned pointing the finger at the steering committee [1]. It's not been the same people for the last two years, but clearly there must be systemic issues in the people getting elected to this board for there to be so many persistent problems. Also see roberth's resignation [2]…

The moderation team quit because they could no longer act with impunity.

This was the elected steering committee doing its job, and a sign of growing health.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#154
post #48

For anyone reading this and jumping to a broader conclusion: the Nixpkgs core team disbanding does not mean Nixpkgs or Nix is dying. It does mean that this particular structure was not sustainable, very important contributors burnt out and we need to do better, faster. We need to continue learning from this and continue building a stronger ecosystem that prioritizes the contributors who are the only reason any of thi…

> the Nixpkgs core team disbanding does not mean Nixpkgs or Nix is dying. Nice attempt to try to rescue here, but everyone sees that NixOS is dying. When a group of, say, ten people give up in a moment, that does not bode well for the future of NixOS.

A team of two people decided to disband the team, but continue to make contributions.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#155

Nix sounded great, but actually trying to use it for personal use felt like a constant time sink. LLMs made it seem like their bespoke language could be side stepped and one could get all the benefits of the ideas without the time sink. But now they have drama, so I hope someone runs with the idea but for humans and possibly LLMs.

The time sink thing is a trade off. You spend more time up front configuring some aspect of your system. But then you generally don't have to ever think about it again, until your needs change. For example:

Ubuntu: a problem needs solving -> spend an hour learning how to solve it -> implement solution -> a year goes by -> new machine -> same problem -> spend an hour because you forgot the solution -> implement it again

NixOS: problem -> spend 2 hours -> implement -> never repeat again

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#156

I’m not saying it’s decisively correlated, or anything on its own, but there sure are a lot of anime avatars in this community.

When I did nix, I joked that everyone I met in the community was either a queer furry kayaker or a military-industrial Terminator dev, with no in-between.

Nix is flexible enough to bend to your will.

Perhaps it is no surprise the earlier adopters were people with rigid views.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#157
post #70
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html Any organization is eventually controlled by people more interested in the organization than its mission. Or something to that effect. (Accidentally attached this to the wrong post, meant for the post above this)

Technical people (or people with bad social skills) also love to inadequately and incorrectly try and turn the complexity of social organization into simple laws and rules. This kind of reduction doesn't really do people a service, and is also a bit arrogant and simple-minded. It would be much more interesting to name this as a tendency, and try to describe when and how it might occur, how the structure of the org mi…

Aren't you guilty of the same thing by generalising that "technical people simple laws and rules"? Also, calling people arrogant and simple-minded is a great example of behaviour that makes it difficult to hold a community together. We can have discussions without having to resort to insults.

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nixpkgs Core team was established in Sept 2025 ( https://discourse.nixos.org/t/establishing-the-nixpkgs-core-... ), so it is a fairly new concept and idea. They've accomplished some good things as highlighted in the post, but are now stepping down. Yes, we'd prefer for the team to exist, but we've also functioned without one for ~20 years. It may take multiple iterations to bootstrap the concept and to figure out…

Packages were handled way before 2025 already, so it is strange that you insinuate they'd all only burn out within a year, and before that it was all cake and tea. NixOS is dying, everyone sees this right now. > but we've also functioned without one for ~20 years. Then this is also a PR problem because why need a team when the 20 years before were allegedly so perfect?

> NixOS is dying, everyone sees this right now.

Huh? Based on what? The packages I use keep getting updated, so clearly nixpkgs is alive. The OS I use keep getting updated, so clearly NixOS is alive to. Who exactly is dying, and what makes you believe that?

Re: The Nixpkgs core team has disbanded

#159
post #33

Can someone explain the ramifications of this to those of us not informed. I’m in the process of about to deploy Nixos to server workloads, but am now hesitant because I don’t understand these ramifications.

If you want to trust your servers to a product of this community, that is your call. Just note that the community is unstable and prone to civil wars.

please enumerate the civil wars over the decades Nix has been around. It is insane to discourage someone from using a good piece of battle-tested software because you personally have opinions about their community.
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