The main issue I had while using NixOS is that it has a small and somewhat broken set of packages. This is compounded by the very incomplete Nix documentation - its way too hard to create new packages.
Perhaps it is hard to discover how to, but I was about to post here and say one of the best things about nix is how easy it is to hack and add packages. It does require a bit of learning about how it works, but once you do the whole system is quite understandable. It's also very easy to test out things locally, overriding and extending the nix package collection. It is fairly straightforward to set up, build and install your own local projects as nix packages. Even I -- a mere web developer, who mostly uses OS X -- got a package definition merged into the main repository, it was that simple.
I agree the documentation needs work. It can be a real exercise in institutional knowledge sometimes to piece things together. I'd love to help you package something new, or fix an existing package if you would like. The thing that kept me going is how easy it was to fix ... after learning the incantations.
I think the project as a whole would welcome suggestions on where to improve docs as well, and would _definitely_ appreciate some new docs being written. It is hard to do this once you're too familiar :(.
mjhoy|9 years ago
Perhaps it is hard to discover how to, but I was about to post here and say one of the best things about nix is how easy it is to hack and add packages. It does require a bit of learning about how it works, but once you do the whole system is quite understandable. It's also very easy to test out things locally, overriding and extending the nix package collection. It is fairly straightforward to set up, build and install your own local projects as nix packages. Even I -- a mere web developer, who mostly uses OS X -- got a package definition merged into the main repository, it was that simple.
One series of blog posts that is good in this regard is the Nix pill series: http://lethalman.blogspot.com/2014/07/nix-pill-1-why-you-sho...
grhmc|9 years ago
I think the project as a whole would welcome suggestions on where to improve docs as well, and would _definitely_ appreciate some new docs being written. It is hard to do this once you're too familiar :(.
voltagex_|9 years ago
oever|9 years ago