I hope I find a home like that for myself one day.
It wasn't for nothing
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#22I'm not a developer but I totally relate to this. Most of my creative pursuits are weird, niche, sometimes avant-garde. If I didn't make my artifacts, nobody else would, and it is so intrinsically rewarding to see my visions instantiated, even if they pale in comparison to my first imagining of what they might be. Because I have fringe-y interests, most people don't necessarily "get" it. (Probably true of everyone el…
Does it bother you if people don't discover your work and don't use it? I've always wanted to do something of value that lasts, and many times I was discouraged by lack of interest from other people.
Yes. And then I think that I need to take the project further, make it bigger and more attention -getting, and document it more, and push it in social media more.
But I'm not going to do that. So there is some associated pain. But it's diminishing with time.
And the attention my project got is definitely greater than zero. And the internet is forever. So there is a kind of peace.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#23Nice! Bravo for your contributions! After using and contributing NixOS for 3 years, I appreciated that I understood far more how Guix worked after just one 1-2 weeks of using it. Guix introduces abstractions, such as operating-system that has defined fields that make it clearer what structures are being built. NixOS, on the other hand, does not have such abstractions (or perhaps just not as well documented/discoverab…
> Guix introduces abstractions, such as operating-system that has defined fields that make it clearer what structures are being built. NixOS, on the other hand, does not have such abstractions (or perhaps just not as well documented/discoverable).
NixOS had plenty of abstractions, so I don't quite understand this. All of NixOS is a compilation of abstractions for building an operating system environment. Could you elaborate on what abstractions are not present?
> Guix is tackling multiple fronts: a blob-free kernel, a non systemd init, mailing list development, bootstrapability, no non-free software, high standards for commit messages.
Except for the last one, all of these are noble achievements perhaps within a subset of an ecosystem, like Nix or Guix, but the deliberate and unwavering stapling of these goals to the ecosystem makes Guix unpalatable.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don’t have mouths to feed then options are massive and life is cheap. For example remote work live in south america type of thing.
Is it really though? I imagine way more people would love to spend all their free time on their hobbies, and would sacrifice some of the luxuries of the modern world, but work crap jobs. And most of these people don't have kids. See: the amount of miserable people on Reddit and elsewhere.
If you have good relations with your parents, you can grind away in their basement. For obvious reasons, many people cannot or do not want to take that approach
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#25I like the blog post and I'm happy for the author, truly. But Guix doesn't sit well with me, and I rarely see this discussed:
The Guix zealotry will be their undoing, and frankly this is where Nix shines. I can use Nix at work, at home, with family, with vendors, with binary blobs, on macOS. The community tries very hard to help.
With Guix, sure, there's stuff like nonguix, but take a gander at this from the nonguix readme:
> Please do NOT promote this repository on any official Guix communication channels, such as their mailing lists or IRC channel, even in response to support requests! This is to show respect for the Guix project’s strict policy against recommending nonfree software, and to avoid any unnecessary hostility.
Guix has truly noble goals (in classic GNU fashion) but they're ultimately misguided. Yes sure it's great that it's pure and reproducible and whatever else but if I can't get stuff done with it it's useless. Actually useless.
The standard encouraged response to "Hi I'm a new Guix user and I was wondering how I can run steam?" is roughly equivalent to "Go fuck yourself" and I'm just amazed by that.
If Guix ever becomes mainstream, it will be in spite of their efforts.
In the meantime, I'm betting on Nix.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#26I'd love to know how the authors financials work. It sounds like a dream to work on something just because it's fun and fulfilling. I have mouths to feed and that dominates much of my career choices. I'm in a small town in a small country so earning a FAANG salary is not an option. I can't save up and go work on a dream project.
Opportunities, choices and consequences. You got the opportunity to meet a partner and chose to start a family. Not everyone gets that opportunity in life, so either be happy with your choices or make different ones. But every choice comes with consequences.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#27I'd love to know how the authors financials work. It sounds like a dream to work on something just because it's fun and fulfilling. I have mouths to feed and that dominates much of my career choices. I'm in a small town in a small country so earning a FAANG salary is not an option. I can't save up and go work on a dream project.
If you find a good niche, you can remote work 3 days a week on a developer salary and still make more than many professions would full time. It takes deliberate effort to setup but it's very achievable.
That leaves you with 4 days a week to work on your own projects.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#28I'd love to know how the authors financials work. It sounds like a dream to work on something just because it's fun and fulfilling. I have mouths to feed and that dominates much of my career choices. I'm in a small town in a small country so earning a FAANG salary is not an option. I can't save up and go work on a dream project.
Opportunities, choices and consequences. You got the opportunity to meet a partner and chose to start a family. Not everyone gets that opportunity in life, so either be happy with your choices or make different ones. But every choice comes with consequences.
Oh yeah I'm happy with my bargain. I'm also curious to see if the author has found a way to make a living out of this. If for other reason that to live the dream vicariously.
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#29Good for the author!
Find a thing that works for you, make it work for you and the people around you, win!
Re: It wasn't for nothing
#30I like the blog post and I'm happy for the author, truly. But Guix doesn't sit well with me, and I rarely see this discussed: The Guix zealotry will be their undoing, and frankly this is where Nix shines. I can use Nix at work, at home, with family, with vendors, with binary blobs, on macOS. The community tries very hard to help. With Guix, sure, there's stuff like nonguix, but take a gander at this from the nonguix…
Have you considered the idea that it might just not be for you? There are plenty of workflows that don't require proprietary software, and adding proprietary software breaks a lot of the point of Guix, along with throwing more work onto the backs of maintainers.
You wouldn't expect a bunch of people giving away a vegetarian cookbook to respond super well to, "This is all fine and great and all, but how can I adapt this recipe to grilled dog?"
Especially not after saying their project was pointless since you couldn't easily use it to shish kebab your cat.