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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • I’m interested in the topic in general, but not in explaining that declarative systems don’t solve the problem of continuously changing software (e.g., for security updates, changing landscape), and the need to update configs that goes along with it. Hope that helps!



  • udon@lemmy.worldtolinuxmemes@lemmy.worldNix or Gentoo
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    18 days ago

    Except that things change as well in (or rather “around”) declarative systems, and you have to update your config files as well. That’s because the underlying software changes, and it has nothing to do with whether your system is declarative or not. You just need to put in the work to update your configs at a different point in time.


  • For everyone who doesn’t have several different systems to maintain, I find the advantages of nixOS to be marginal. Sure, you can argue about atomicity and all, but honestly I don’t remember ever running into a serious problem with debian either. The huge package repo is nice, but I rarely encounter an app I can’t get through apt, flatpak, or as an appimage.

    At the same time, nix also has various downsides. Documentation sucks. There are two main ways to manage the system, they both pretend to be the better one, and it’s super hard to even get started. That’s not an issue with the technology, but just a lack of priority. Guix is much better on that end (but also comes with the same marginal advantages).

    On the other hand, debian has a stable community, with proper processes, democratic structures etc.

    This is a nice, kind of old presentation from debconf, where people discussed nix and how this could be useful in a debian context as well:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGrcLEweglg

    So, if you FOMO, don’t worry. Debian and other options have this on the radar and have their ways to adapt (even if slowly)








  • True, the apt packages can get outdated (or are already outdated at release time :) ). But tbh, for me that mainly affects the desktop environment these days and KDE is already pretty neat anyway. The CLI tools I use don’t change as much anymore, and the GUI tools are usually available as a flatpak so up-to-date.