Why aren't more people using NixPKGs? - eviltoast

Distro agnostic packages like flatpaks and appimages have become extremely popular over the past few years, yet they seem to get a lot of dirt thrown on them because they are super bloated (since they bring all their dependencies with them).

NixPkgs are also distro agnostic, but they are about as light as regular system packages (.deb/.rpm/.PKG) all the while having an impressive 80 000 packages in their repos.

I don’t get why more people aren’t using them, sure they do need some tweaking but so do flatpaks, my main theory is that there are no graphical installer for them and the CLI installer is lacking (no progress bar, no ETA, strange syntax) I’m also scared that there is a downside to them I dont know about.

  • Shareni@programming.dev
    1·
    9 months ago

    Like most complex things in life, if you devout time to it and engage with it deeply you gain an advantage over a simplier version of the same thing.

    What are you talking about?

    It’s just a list of packages, and an optional flake to control the repositories (stable/unstable) and add packages from outside of the official ones.

    To update everything nix related I just run:

    cd ~/dotfiles/nix/ && nix flake update && home-manager switch

    Sure, it’s slightly more complex than clicking a button in Discover, but it’s not rocket science.

    I’d say in your specific “docker centric while using debain” use case, sure. Most people who use linux as a daily driver? Maybe not.

    I’d say you’ve never seriously used a stable distro if you don’t realize how common issues like that are.

    I’m pretty certain the current hype for stable distros is fueled primarily by the growth of tools like flatpak. So, since linux users require an additional PM, the real question is: Are you using linux only for browsing and the occasional text editing?