this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2025
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[โ€“] ruffsl@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well let me at least leave why I think Nix is not it at the moment:

  • Software Center - browsing search.nixos.org isn't quite the same in terms low friction and discoverability
    • You already have to know what you're looking for, and it can't make system config on your behalf
    • Debian or conventional package managers usually offer a native GUI for package selection and deployment
  • System Defaults - the minimality of a basic default install can cause a lot of papercuts
    • the default boot partition is rather small given the OS's prepecity to add new kernels with new generations
    • and without any garbage collection service enabled by default, user first encounter switch failures due to this
  • External Binaries Compatibility - Linux also suffers from this in general as compared to MacOS or Windows
    • in addition to being much more niche, reuse of existing binaries from more prevalent distros becomes complicated
    • the desktop ISO could suggest a nix-ld config with default libs most binary distributes expect, easing in new users
  • The Nix language - much more complex than conventional cong markup langs, being more of a turing complete DSL
    • partial working LSP impare introspection while writing, and the runtime error messages are poorly formatted
    • most desktop users (in debian or fedora) have little need to learn their OS's packaging schemas, but NixOS users do

You're speaking subjectively. Thays the first problem.

Nix was built for people like me who need a binary compatible build system to be replicable every single time, and present no false positives.

You're just...talking about a way you can customize it. It's a feature of major distro, you just didn't know. Do some research ๐Ÿ˜˜