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One thing I'd love to know is what the advantages of the different systems are, objectively. I've always used macports, from the very early days, and I just use

One thing I'd love to know is what the advantages of the different systems are, objectively. I've always used macports, from the very early days, and I just use it because it works, and I know its quirks. I remember brew starting, and thinking "oh, that looks interesting". Yet I never really felt a compelling reason to change. This article is refreshingly honest about why the author decided to give nix a try, and I very much appreciated that. A large chunk is "it's new and I wanted to try it out", combined with deterministic update times, which I respect. Is there a detailed technical comparison of macports, homebrew and nix anywhere?

sneak 5y ago
The main reason I switched from brew to nixpkgs is the homebrew developers' approach to users who object to the spyware they embedded in homebrew.
- beermonster 5y ago
  Any references?
rgoulter 5y ago
Nix comes with some friction since its approach to packaging is so different. When you start using it, 95% of the time it's great. But because Nix does things in such a different way that it can be difficult how to navigate that last 5%. In terms of installing packages, it's an advantage to Nix that it works with both macOS and Linux. While not every package is as cross-platform as it could be (e.g. some desktop apps that are available on both are only packaged on Linux), it does mean it's easy to use e.g. the same version on Tmux in all computers you have access to. Nix can be used for more than installing packages. e.g. the nix-shell allows for dropping into a shell with particular programs installed.. like a generalisation of rvm/nvm/whatever. Nix can be used to describe Docker images instead of using Dockerfile. NixOS uses Nix to describe its OS's configuration and services, rather than just packages. (Whole OS setup described from a single file is pretty neat).
- jonringer117 5y ago
  Nix+NixOS can also be used to describe iso's, installation iso, vm images, ami images, azure images, sd-card images, pxe-boot images, shell environments, and others. Not to mention that nix can be used (with varying levels of success) on windows, intel macs, m1 macs, redoxOS, and others. In general, it's write once, use anywhere.

sneak 5y ago

The main reason I switched from brew to nixpkgs is the homebrew developers' approach to users who object to the spyware they embedded in homebrew.

beermonster 5y ago
Any references?

rgoulter 5y ago

Nix comes with some friction since its approach to packaging is so different. When you start using it, 95% of the time it's great. But because Nix does things in such a different way that it can be difficult how to navigate that last 5%. In terms of installing packages, it's an advantage to Nix that it works with both macOS and Linux. While not every package is as cross-platform as it could be (e.g. some desktop apps that are available on both are only packaged on Linux), it does mean it's easy to use e.g. the same version on Tmux in all computers you have access to. Nix can be used for more than installing packages. e.g. the nix-shell allows for dropping into a shell with particular programs installed.. like a generalisation of rvm/nvm/whatever. Nix can be used to describe Docker images instead of using Dockerfile. NixOS uses Nix to describe its OS's configuration and services, rather than just packages. (Whole OS setup described from a single file is pretty neat).

jonringer117 5y ago
Nix+NixOS can also be used to describe iso's, installation iso, vm images, ami images, azure images, sd-card images, pxe-boot images, shell environments, and others. Not to mention that nix can be used (with varying levels of success) on windows, intel macs, m1 macs, redoxOS, and others. In general, it's write once, use anywhere.