A review of Nix/NixOS after using it on all my machines for three years. I'll cover what works, what doesn't, and why it's the first OS that's stuck with me.
I’m not quite sure why you fetishise a bit-for-bit over semantic equivalence. Doesn’t it turn “it works on my machine” into "it works on my machine as long as it has this sha: … "?
You absolutely do. If you build a container and publish it you will pull down that exact thing every time. How is that not “reproducibility”?
You no what though? Scratch that - who gives a fuck? Bit-for-bit reproducibility takes far more effort than it’s worth anyway. Even NixOS isn’t completely reproducible. It’s a false goal.
For dev environments, repeatable is okay.
It’s well more than good enough you mean.
If you want actually reproducible binaries that you can ship, Nix is better fit for that purpose.
Care to elaborate? Containers give you repeatable environments, which are not the same thing as reproducible environments.
But for like 99% of development teams “repeatable” is Good Enough™.
So, containers do not get you reproducibility.
For dev environments, repeatable is okay. If you want actually reproducible binaries that you can ship, Nix is better fit for that purpose.
I’m not quite sure why you fetishise a bit-for-bit over semantic equivalence. Doesn’t it turn “it works on my machine” into "it works on my machine as long as it has this sha: … "?
You absolutely do. If you build a container and publish it you will pull down that exact thing every time. How is that not “reproducibility”?
You no what though? Scratch that - who gives a fuck? Bit-for-bit reproducibility takes far more effort than it’s worth anyway. Even NixOS isn’t completely reproducible. It’s a false goal.
It’s well more than good enough you mean.
Nobody really needs that.
🤡