4 ms·

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.