Nix-GUI: Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through settings / GUI

Post by dmitriid » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 11:57 AM UTC

whateveracct wrote: post #7

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #3

Looking at the GUI, I have no idea what it does. I'm guessing that you actually need to know Nix to be able to use it, which kinda defeats the "usable for non-technical users" goal. I can see the value of it, if I ever learn Nix, and want a quick way to make modifications without having to google every possibilities.

It literally says what each field does.. Just because it doesn't have an obvious minimal modern UI doesn't mean it doesn't do its job. Gotta read I guess .. but then again Nix also in general has a prerequisite of "calm down and read." But then again, so does Linux! The only thing you need to do to be Nix-competent is not flip the table and blame the tool when you get an error you don't understand. (Same goes for Has…

Post by georgyo » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 11:58 AM UTC

TheFreim wrote: post #8

roblabla wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a nix fan and have been using nixos for years now, packaging stuff and writing my own nix-based libraries, but I still find the language to be painful. The problem is, documentation is sparse to non-existant, error messages are poor and often far from the actual problem, and it makes use of concept that lots of people are not familiar with (like lazy evaluation) without ever explaining them, resulting in surprisi…

> The problem is, documentation is sparse to non-existant, error messages are poor and often far from the actual problem, and it makes use of concept that lots of people are not familiar with (like lazy evaluation) without ever explaining them, resulting in surprising semantics. I used NixOS and Home-Manager to run my entire system and home directory for a couple weeks earlier this year. The lack of clear documentati…

Post by dmitriid » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

georgyo wrote: post #13

TheFreim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is, documentation is sparse to non-existant, error messages are poor and often far from the actual problem, and it makes use of concept that lots of people are not familiar with (like lazy evaluation) without ever explaining them, resulting in surprising semantics. I used NixOS and Home-Manager to run my entire system and home directory for a couple weeks earlier this year. The lack of clear documentati…

All the official documentation is autogenerated daily. What documentation did you find outdated?

Post by dmitriid » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 12:04 PM UTC

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #14

dmitriid wrote: post #2

This will sound rude, but I'm more and more convinced that people immersed in nix have never seen a real person in real life. defined boolean expression reference true. wat. I'm a technical person, and I have no idea what this is. And for technical people? Literally everyone says that "nix is really hard to get started with". nix and nix-related developers, please, please find some real people and talk to them.

You probably don't have a problem that this solves. I.e., some people still download random zipfiles from the internet and install each individual app from a wizard dialog onto their Windows 10 machine. They find software repositories and package managers confusing and overengineered. I guess that's okay.

Post by whateveracct » Sun, Oct 10, 2021, 12:05 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #11

whateveracct wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It literally says what each field does.. Just because it doesn't have an obvious minimal modern UI doesn't mean it doesn't do its job. Gotta read I guess .. but then again Nix also in general has a prerequisite of "calm down and read." But then again, so does Linux! The only thing you need to do to be Nix-competent is not flip the table and blame the tool when you get an error you don't understand. (Same goes for Has…

> Make NixOS usable for non-technical users through a settings / package management GUI. ^ emphasis mine. What exactly does a non-techical user have to read to understand whatever's on the screenshot? Forget non-techincal, explain this to a technical person. Apparently this has something to do with sound? Have you or any nix-person ever seen a sound configuration screen for non-technical users? I mean this one is by…