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> Write up a nix config that sets up i3 and firefox, could be just a couple of lines You forget the step "find out what to write in the nix config file". Might

> Write up a nix config that sets up i3 and firefox, could be just a couple of lines You forget the step "find out what to write in the nix config file". Might take anywhere from less than a minute to forever, depending on experience, google-fu, and documentation.

tinco 6y ago
Well obviously, I'm just pointing out why you would want to spend some time figuring it out. NixOS isn't just another linux distro, it's the next generation of operating systems.
- abrouwers 6y ago
  I don't know, the "benefits" have been well preached for years, and I don't see NixOS gaining popularity (though, I tend to focus on the linux community news, so might be missing the visibility). To me, NixOS is a cool concept, but I think it solves a problem that not a lot of people have. I mean, how often are people "redoing their systems from scratch," deploying to new machines, etc? That's like a once-every-four-year thing for me, and it's way easier to just dump a list of packages.
  - tinco 6y ago
    People mostly don't have the problem because Ansible et al solve it for them. It's the classic situation of a good-enough solution existing, making the superior solution irrelevant.
    - takeda 6y ago
      Agree, what is going for Nix is that is a valuable tool and is very versatile. NixOS is just one application. From OS point of view you no longer need: - Kickstart - Ansible, Saltstack et.al. - Custom package repo for custom packages (if you need to customize something) There are other areas too: - create common developent environment, makes sure every developer has exactly the same tools installed with exactly same versions, so no more "it doesn't work on my machine" - build system - CI/CD - packaging (as mentioned, you no longer need artifactory, instead you can have nix cache) - there is also potential to use it for IaC, there's NixOps, but currently this is maybe the weakest part of Nix, it only covers deploying a box, but if you want to do something more complex, like autoscaled service it gets in the way. It is great for developing a new image though. There are terraform integrations, I didn't try them yet, might work better. - you can configure local developer machine to use build system for local builds as well. If caching is configured, then once code is deployed it will already cache good build so it doesn't need to redo it - for personal use with things like home-manager it can replace dot files as do more, you can have the same environment each time. Let say you change job and get a new laptop you can have it quickly set up the way you want it
majewsky 6y ago
https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html massively helps. Sure, some things you have to build for yourself and that may take some time, but a surprising amount of stuff has been done already and you just need to flip one of these options to activate it.
- na85 6y ago
  What's the value proposition over something like Debian where it Just Works(tm)? Maybe if I was a sysadmin managing a herd of boxen I would like this, but for a guy with only two Linux systems (plus my mac, plus my windows boxes, plus my openbsd pcengines etc.), it seems like a lot of fuckery with text files for little to no actual improvement in my UX.
  - elbear 6y ago
    The main value proposition is this: With a single file, you describe the desired state of your system. That file is configuration.nix. You put in there what packages you want installed, what users, what SSH keys, what services systemd manages. Then, you run `nixos-rebuild` and then you switch your system to that configuration. The old state of your system stays around until you run garbage collect. So you can rollback to it, if you want.
    - strunz 6y ago
      Honestly, I find it infinitely easier to just do everything in in docker containers. Then the OS doesn't matter except for installing docker, and running docker-compose up.
      - agumonkey 6y ago
        docker is like nixos for 2yo
        peanut_is_yum 6y ago
        If that were all there were to it, I would certainly prefer docker over nixos
TheYumasi 6y ago
It’s just a matter of doing a good old `man 5 configuration.nix`.

tinco 6y ago

Well obviously, I'm just pointing out why you would want to spend some time figuring it out. NixOS isn't just another linux distro, it's the next generation of operating systems.

abrouwers 6y ago
I don't know, the "benefits" have been well preached for years, and I don't see NixOS gaining popularity (though, I tend to focus on the linux community news, so might be missing the visibility). To me, NixOS is a cool concept, but I think it solves a problem that not a lot of people have. I mean, how often are people "redoing their systems from scratch," deploying to new machines, etc? That's like a once-every-four-year thing for me, and it's way easier to just dump a list of packages.
- tinco 6y ago
  People mostly don't have the problem because Ansible et al solve it for them. It's the classic situation of a good-enough solution existing, making the superior solution irrelevant.
  - takeda 6y ago
    Agree, what is going for Nix is that is a valuable tool and is very versatile. NixOS is just one application. From OS point of view you no longer need: - Kickstart - Ansible, Saltstack et.al. - Custom package repo for custom packages (if you need to customize something) There are other areas too: - create common developent environment, makes sure every developer has exactly the same tools installed with exactly same versions, so no more "it doesn't work on my machine" - build system - CI/CD - packaging (as mentioned, you no longer need artifactory, instead you can have nix cache) - there is also potential to use it for IaC, there's NixOps, but currently this is maybe the weakest part of Nix, it only covers deploying a box, but if you want to do something more complex, like autoscaled service it gets in the way. It is great for developing a new image though. There are terraform integrations, I didn't try them yet, might work better. - you can configure local developer machine to use build system for local builds as well. If caching is configured, then once code is deployed it will already cache good build so it doesn't need to redo it - for personal use with things like home-manager it can replace dot files as do more, you can have the same environment each time. Let say you change job and get a new laptop you can have it quickly set up the way you want it

majewsky 6y ago

https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html massively helps. Sure, some things you have to build for yourself and that may take some time, but a surprising amount of stuff has been done already and you just need to flip one of these options to activate it.

na85 6y ago
What's the value proposition over something like Debian where it Just Works(tm)? Maybe if I was a sysadmin managing a herd of boxen I would like this, but for a guy with only two Linux systems (plus my mac, plus my windows boxes, plus my openbsd pcengines etc.), it seems like a lot of fuckery with text files for little to no actual improvement in my UX.
- elbear 6y ago
  The main value proposition is this: With a single file, you describe the desired state of your system. That file is configuration.nix. You put in there what packages you want installed, what users, what SSH keys, what services systemd manages. Then, you run `nixos-rebuild` and then you switch your system to that configuration. The old state of your system stays around until you run garbage collect. So you can rollback to it, if you want.
  - strunz 6y ago
    Honestly, I find it infinitely easier to just do everything in in docker containers. Then the OS doesn't matter except for installing docker, and running docker-compose up.
    - agumonkey 6y ago
      docker is like nixos for 2yo
      - peanut_is_yum 6y ago
        If that were all there were to it, I would certainly prefer docker over nixos

TheYumasi 6y ago

It’s just a matter of doing a good old `man 5 configuration.nix`.