They definitely overcomplicated it IMO. At first I was like oh cool I just have one config file where I configure my entire system and it's gonna be the same everywhere which is cool, oh but what's this there's nix-env suddenly, ok I can have different environments that's cool but can I just put everything in the global config anyway? Turns out not really, some things just don't work if you put them in the global config. Oh ok I guess but what's this there's this thing called Home Manager? How is it different than nix-env why do I need it? Also the error messages you get from the package manager are sometimes inane.
It's a cool idea but honestly I found it to be more trouble than it's worth.
The official user docs are quite unhelpful for newcomers. They're not introductions but rather manuals for system administrators.
nix-env should be deprecated and home manager should be promoted more but the governance around Nix can be fragmented. Home manager is like your configuration.nix but per user rather than per machine.
Nix's error logs can be very cryptic which is why you should always edit nix files with a syntax checker. Usually what you want is in the middle of the backtrace.
I've been using NixOS for a month or so and it has been an incredible experience, but it's not meant for everyone. If you want fearless updates you can use Fedora Atomic Desktop.
I use NixOS too
Like Arch, it's not as hard as people say, but it's actually very difficult.
They definitely overcomplicated it IMO. At first I was like oh cool I just have one config file where I configure my entire system and it's gonna be the same everywhere which is cool, oh but what's this there's
nix-envsuddenly, ok I can have different environments that's cool but can I just put everything in the global config anyway? Turns out not really, some things just don't work if you put them in the global config. Oh ok I guess but what's this there's this thing called Home Manager? How is it different thannix-envwhy do I need it? Also the error messages you get from the package manager are sometimes inane.It's a cool idea but honestly I found it to be more trouble than it's worth.
The official user docs are quite unhelpful for newcomers. They're not introductions but rather manuals for system administrators.
nix-env should be deprecated and home manager should be promoted more but the governance around Nix can be fragmented. Home manager is like your configuration.nix but per user rather than per machine.
Nix's error logs can be very cryptic which is why you should always edit nix files with a syntax checker. Usually what you want is in the middle of the backtrace.
I've been using NixOS for a month or so and it has been an incredible experience, but it's not meant for everyone. If you want fearless updates you can use Fedora Atomic Desktop.
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