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I don’t know the value of half-assing it, but committing your full ass is amazing. Don’t abandon a working system, but the next time you wait a whole three week

by pkulak 3y ago

I don’t know the value of half-assing it, but committing your full ass is amazing. Don’t abandon a working system, but the next time you wait a whole three weeks to pacman -syu and your GPG keys are out of date and everything goes to hell… give it a shot. Honestly, it’s Home Manager that really adds the maximum value, and getting all the way there takes a full weekend, but what were you gonna do anyway?

tiffanyg 3y ago
I don’t know the value of half-assing it, but committing your full ass is amazing. Indeed. As no less than Ron Swanson rendered unto us - an exemplar in classic American yarn form: https://youtu.be/k6hZ9KdG1QU https://youtu.be/k6hZ9KdG1QU ... wise words.
lloeki 3y ago
> Honestly, it’s Home Manager that really adds the maximum value I feel like Nix does have such killer features, but they are different for everyone. For me it was: - system management (nixos + nix-darwin. I wish there was something like nix-darwin for non-nixos linux distros, binding daemon systemd units and desktop files into the "hosting" distro) - on-the-spot running without globally installing for one shot tasks (nix-shell -p iotop --run iotop) - "just works" project environment (default.nix+shell.nix or flakes) These are the ones that made me tip over and decide to go from tiptoeing to full tilt
- Novosell 3y ago
  I don't really see the appeal of avoiding to install programs. What's the benefit, exactly?
  - mbakke 3y ago
    Not needing root is a game changer. Another benefit is that "traditional" package managers may litter your system with configuration files and post-install scripts (for the software you are installing and all of its dependencies), some of which can persist even after uninstalling the packages. Nix prevents that by design.
  - lloeki 3y ago
    One less thing to manage and think about, including cleaning up after myself. It may pull dependencies that I don't care about or want exposed e.g that would be picked up by some other thing as with traditional package managers (e.g a configure script would pick installed stuff). apt-get autoremove --purge or pacman -Rsc become a distant memory. It's fire and forget and I can just focus on what I'm set to do. Once I'm done with the one shot task, it disappears and could be garbage collected for all I care. Some tools I did promote to being part of my user env but crossing that bar is a very deliberate thing, some are promoted to systemwide (root) and the bar for that is even higher. It removes a ton of mental deadweight.
- dlyons 3y ago
  Yeah, nix-darwin is incredible. Use cases you mentioned are great; for me, I love being able to use my NixOS machine and MacBook to seamlessly carry around the same dev environment. https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config
- pxc 3y ago
  > I wish there was something like nix-darwin for non-nixos linux distros It's in early stages, but it exists now: https://github.com/numtide/system-manager https://github.com/numtide/system-manager
starlevel003 3y ago
> but what were you gonna do anyway? go outside, talk to friends, do something productive, etc...

by pkulak 3y ago

tiffanyg 3y ago

I don’t know the value of half-assing it, but committing your full ass is amazing. Indeed. As no less than Ron Swanson rendered unto us - an exemplar in classic American yarn form: https://youtu.be/k6hZ9KdG1QU https://youtu.be/k6hZ9KdG1QU ... wise words.

lloeki 3y ago

> Honestly, it’s Home Manager that really adds the maximum value I feel like Nix does have such killer features, but they are different for everyone. For me it was: - system management (nixos + nix-darwin. I wish there was something like nix-darwin for non-nixos linux distros, binding daemon systemd units and desktop files into the "hosting" distro) - on-the-spot running without globally installing for one shot tasks (nix-shell -p iotop --run iotop) - "just works" project environment (default.nix+shell.nix or flakes) These are the ones that made me tip over and decide to go from tiptoeing to full tilt

Novosell 3y ago
I don't really see the appeal of avoiding to install programs. What's the benefit, exactly?
- mbakke 3y ago
  Not needing root is a game changer. Another benefit is that "traditional" package managers may litter your system with configuration files and post-install scripts (for the software you are installing and all of its dependencies), some of which can persist even after uninstalling the packages. Nix prevents that by design.
- lloeki 3y ago
  One less thing to manage and think about, including cleaning up after myself. It may pull dependencies that I don't care about or want exposed e.g that would be picked up by some other thing as with traditional package managers (e.g a configure script would pick installed stuff). apt-get autoremove --purge or pacman -Rsc become a distant memory. It's fire and forget and I can just focus on what I'm set to do. Once I'm done with the one shot task, it disappears and could be garbage collected for all I care. Some tools I did promote to being part of my user env but crossing that bar is a very deliberate thing, some are promoted to systemwide (root) and the bar for that is even higher. It removes a ton of mental deadweight.
dlyons 3y ago
Yeah, nix-darwin is incredible. Use cases you mentioned are great; for me, I love being able to use my NixOS machine and MacBook to seamlessly carry around the same dev environment. https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config
pxc 3y ago
> I wish there was something like nix-darwin for non-nixos linux distros It's in early stages, but it exists now: https://github.com/numtide/system-manager https://github.com/numtide/system-manager

starlevel003 3y ago

> but what were you gonna do anyway? go outside, talk to friends, do something productive, etc...