5 ms·

This is well described. Nix is fundamentally a different way to manage an OS compared to almost anything out there. While I think the ideas behind it are revolu

by nvarsj 6y ago

This is well described. Nix is fundamentally a different way to manage an OS compared to almost anything out there. While I think the ideas behind it are revolutionary and is the right way to build infra, the UX and organic growth of it makes it fairly difficult to get into - so there is unfortunately a steep learning curve. I think I sunk a solid 40 hours into building a declarative config for my own dev machine before I had a decent (but far from complete) understanding. But once you grasp it, it is quite mind blowing, and you wonder how anyone could cope with traditional mutable systems and the associated temperamental config management. I think Guix might be the answer as a more approachable implementation of the Nix ideas, using Scheme for its config language. I haven't spent much time with it but I got going a lot quicker initially compared to Nix.

takeda 6y ago
> I think Guix might be the answer as a more approachable implementation of the Nix ideas, using Scheme for its config language. I haven't spent much time with it but I got going a lot quicker initially compared to Nix. Out of curiosity, did you tried Guix before trying Nix or vice versa? When looking at Guix myself, all I see is that the derivations are just wrapped in parentheses otherwise they do look similar. So I'm wondering if scheme actually brings anything here, especially for someone not familiar with a functional language. IMO Nix language isn't actually that hard, I believe the most complexity comes from nixpkgs and still not adequate documentation of it, so one needs to study its source code.
- nvarsj 6y ago
  I’m probably biased in that I primarily use Emacs and like lisps. So I find guix more approachable right out the box. Learning a new language just to use an OS is quite a big ask and part of the learning hurdle of Nix. It’s too bad that guix uses old style mailing lists for development though. I just can’t be bothered setting up myself for that mode of contribution, so I’ll continue to use NixOS for the indefinite future.

by nvarsj 6y ago

takeda 6y ago

> I think Guix might be the answer as a more approachable implementation of the Nix ideas, using Scheme for its config language. I haven't spent much time with it but I got going a lot quicker initially compared to Nix. Out of curiosity, did you tried Guix before trying Nix or vice versa? When looking at Guix myself, all I see is that the derivations are just wrapped in parentheses otherwise they do look similar. So I'm wondering if scheme actually brings anything here, especially for someone not familiar with a functional language. IMO Nix language isn't actually that hard, I believe the most complexity comes from nixpkgs and still not adequate documentation of it, so one needs to study its source code.

nvarsj 6y ago
I’m probably biased in that I primarily use Emacs and like lisps. So I find guix more approachable right out the box. Learning a new language just to use an OS is quite a big ask and part of the learning hurdle of Nix. It’s too bad that guix uses old style mailing lists for development though. I just can’t be bothered setting up myself for that mode of contribution, so I’ll continue to use NixOS for the indefinite future.