this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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Nix / NixOS

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[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (8 children)

Nix needs a typed language, better CLI interface, better documentation, a distributed cache, to to get rid of the monorepo / single source of control, to support different builders (aka not just bash), and have a less toxic community.

For nix to be used by normal, non technical users, it must have a GUI. That is not optional.

Nix could be great for a lot of things, but it's not the only solution and won't be the last.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Nix is typed: there are strings, paths, lists, attrsets, etc;

Not sure what's wrong with CLI, as I don't really use it except nix flake update (although I remember updating stuff installed via nix profile being a bit cumbersome, but it's not exactly a good practice to use it this way);

Good point with cache, although stuff outside of nixpkgs sometimes provides their own caches which are trivial to enable;

Nobody forces you to use github:nixos/nixpkgs, it's just a regular input. Ppl quite often have their own forks. It's also trivial to use stuff from outside nixpkgs (also just another input);

There are different builders (e.g. buildGoModule);

Idk where you've found toxic community, my interactions have been pretty nice so far (mostly matrix rooms);

GUI is optional, just like for all the other package managers. And it exists: https://github.com/snowfallorg/nix-software-center

Perfectly agreed with nix not (yet ๐Ÿ™ƒ) being the best thing that exists, tho, albeit due to different reasons. For example, it's a PITA to debug, and the error messages are sometimes unhelpful.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I agree, the CLI is good enough. Thanks for the note about the GUI package manager! I hadn't heard about that.

I also second the positive interactions. Mine have been almost exclusively positive. I've come across a few no effort "RTFM, idiot" attitudes but it's rarer on Nix forums and repos than I've seen elsewhere.

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