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r4indeer | 1 year ago

Personally, I like a lot of things about NixOS.

Redeploying a machine has never been easier for me as all of my config is stored in a git repo in a few .nix files. I don't need to remember what I installed or configured somewhere in /etc five years ago, I can just look in the .nix file for that machine. Everything I configure or install is synced across my desktop and laptop through imports (unless specified), which makes the experience very seamless.

When something goes wrong e.g. after an upgrade, I just reboot and choose the previous generation from the boot menu. If I just want to try out a package, I can get a temporary shell where that package is available. If I don't need it after all, it just gets garbage collected.

When working on a project, I can use a dev shell where everything I need to build/test that project is isolated so I don't pollute my root namespace.

discuss

WJW|1 year ago

I like the benefits too, but honestly these are all problems that I simply don't have and the "costs" in learning the new system in the face of the terrible docs and fragmented community are quite high.

I get a new computer once every few years and getting my usual programs installed is no more than a few hours work at most. I have 2 computers, one for work and one for private. Syncing installed programs is neither necessary nor particularly wanted; I don't want Steam on my laptop, nor do I want to run postgres on my private system. The only time an upgrade breaks stuff these days is when a kernel update needs the drivers to be recompiled. The command for that is stored in a file on my desktop and takes less than a minute to find, type in and wait until everything is fine again.

Regarding unwanted packages and "namespace pollution", every once in a while I install a program that is used once or twice and then forgotten about. This doesn't impede my normal workflow at all.

So the benefits of NixOS would be minimal for me, while the onboarding materials and documentation are pretty atrocious. The effort/reward ratio is just not there.