20 years of Nix

I have been exploring nix for the past few months and my experience with nix has been both exhilarating and frustrating, simultaneously. On one hand, I find it hard to imagine not using nix now, but on the other hand, I hesitate to recommend it to other colleagues due to its steep learning curve, ux issues and potential for footguns.

I sincerely hope that nix community improves the UX to make it more accessible to new users. Though for those willing to invest time in learning it, nix is extremely useful and highly recommended.

Re: 20 years of Nix

#5

Post by domenkozar » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:07 PM UTC

amardeep wrote: post #4

I have been exploring nix for the past few months and my experience with nix has been both exhilarating and frustrating, simultaneously. On one hand, I find it hard to imagine not using nix now, but on the other hand, I hesitate to recommend it to other colleagues due to its steep learning curve, ux issues and potential for footguns. I sincerely hope that nix community improves the UX to make it more accessible to ne…

Hey! We've been working at Cachix to address this using https://devenv.sh/.

It's primary targeted to improve DX and on-board users quickly.

Re: 20 years of Nix

#6

Post by tmountain » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:16 PM UTC

I’d like to learn more about the project history, who started it (early contributions), and the context under which the early work was initiated. Wikipedia has exactly two sentences on the history. Is there a better version of the Nix story available?

Re: 20 years of Nix

#7

Post by amardeep » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:17 PM UTC

domenkozar wrote: post #5

amardeep wrote: post #4

I have been exploring nix for the past few months and my experience with nix has been both exhilarating and frustrating, simultaneously. On one hand, I find it hard to imagine not using nix now, but on the other hand, I hesitate to recommend it to other colleagues due to its steep learning curve, ux issues and potential for footguns. I sincerely hope that nix community improves the UX to make it more accessible to ne…

Hey! We've been working at Cachix to address this using https://devenv.sh/ . It's primary targeted to improve DX and on-board users quickly.

Thanks Domen,

devenv.sh is quite nice, and have already started using it.

Re: 20 years of Nix

#8

Post by domenkozar » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:19 PM UTC

amardeep wrote: post #7

domenkozar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey! We've been working at Cachix to address this using https://devenv.sh/ . It's primary targeted to improve DX and on-board users quickly.

Thanks Domen, devenv.sh is quite nice, and have already started using it.

Do you still experience these UX issues and lack of documentation?

Re: 20 years of Nix

#9

Post by nextos » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:21 PM UTC

tmountain wrote: post #6

I’d like to learn more about the project history, who started it (early contributions), and the context under which the early work was initiated. Wikipedia has exactly two sentences on the history. Is there a better version of the Nix story available?

I guess the LISA '04 article and citations / citing work are a good starting point: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1106087772774893771...

Re: 20 years of Nix

#10

Post by domenkozar » Sat, Mar 18, 2023, 1:23 PM UTC

tmountain wrote: post #6

I’d like to learn more about the project history, who started it (early contributions), and the context under which the early work was initiated. Wikipedia has exactly two sentences on the history. Is there a better version of the Nix story available?

The best talk I know about this is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6goF1dM3ag