> You and all the others have to learn why touching the hot stove is a bad idea the same way most children do. It's frustrating to observe.
You say that while your ecosystem still can't get away from cutesy childish terms like "flakes" and "pills". Newsflash: nobody cares. I want "a package" and "a system".
I am not impressed. Before you look down on others make your own thing look uber-professional and then uproot any and all nerd-friendly marketing from it, now and forever. "It was in fact just a phase, mom" -- that's the aura that Nix should radiate before I give it a second chance.
Nix is supposed to solve a very serious problem and if it actually succeeds in that technical goal, the next step is for them to act like it. Very often you're marketing to CTOs or other tech executives -- working programmers are only one chunk of your audience. So that ecosystem has to do better -- starting with you. Your two comments here are basically a text-book argument against using Nix.
I've been a CTO and VP of Eng and I have skipped projects that can't sound professional. I know I have missed out on good stuff; I am very well aware. But we all have only 24h in a day, and only so much energy. We have to filter. One of my filters is: perceived / marketed professionalism.
(To be fair to all sides, I like the nixos.org website. I don't like practically anything else about the ecosystem though.)
> It's fine to criticise Nix for its various flaws, but any suggestion of an "alternative" that has learned nothing from it is just a collective waste of time.
Let's start with that one: nobody needed one more programming language. Nobody will "see the light" if every new technology requires one more knowledge investment. Somebody must tell you that programmers, DevOps, full-blown Ops, CTOs etc. are already overworked and already have to know and regularly catch up with way too much.
If Nix is aiming to help people work less on very annoying problems then it should, you, actually make them work less.
Nix's marketing is a complete mess. "We want you to think less about A and B so here, now learn, X, Y, Z and you should still know A and B -- but it gets better after, one day!".
Nah.
It's fine that you found technology that you love but your bias is very clearly visible and you lack the introspection skills to see that Nix is not that impressive.
Give me a `curl ... | bash` installer plus instant onboarding plus zero upkeep (an oft complaint about Nix btw) and I am sold. Anything less than that, to me you are just one more voice in a huge crowd where everyone screams "use my thing, it's amazing!".
Differentiate yourself and people will flock to you without you having to lift a finger. The fact that this hasn't happened yet is a strong hint that Nix fans are refusing to notice and take a lesson from.
I tried to write a serious response to your comment, but as I got further into it and you got further into personal attacks and away from substance, I decided to delete it and I'm instead leaving you with this:
You should get off your high horse. Nobody cares about you having been a "CTO" of some random venture-backed company, it doesn't give you any credentials which you can fling at people to "win" debates online. 80% of the people on this forum have some useless title like that in their CV. You being able to write lots of words about irrelevant superficial topics doesn't mean that you have anything useful to say, even if you've previously been led to believe that these are equivalent.
I don't care where you flock. I publish all my Nix related work for free, I don't have a personal stake. Your decisions are your problem.
You say that while your ecosystem still can't get away from cutesy childish terms like "flakes" and "pills". Newsflash: nobody cares. I want "a package" and "a system".
I am not impressed. Before you look down on others make your own thing look uber-professional and then uproot any and all nerd-friendly marketing from it, now and forever. "It was in fact just a phase, mom" -- that's the aura that Nix should radiate before I give it a second chance.
Nix is supposed to solve a very serious problem and if it actually succeeds in that technical goal, the next step is for them to act like it. Very often you're marketing to CTOs or other tech executives -- working programmers are only one chunk of your audience. So that ecosystem has to do better -- starting with you. Your two comments here are basically a text-book argument against using Nix.
I've been a CTO and VP of Eng and I have skipped projects that can't sound professional. I know I have missed out on good stuff; I am very well aware. But we all have only 24h in a day, and only so much energy. We have to filter. One of my filters is: perceived / marketed professionalism.
(To be fair to all sides, I like the nixos.org website. I don't like practically anything else about the ecosystem though.)
> It's fine to criticise Nix for its various flaws, but any suggestion of an "alternative" that has learned nothing from it is just a collective waste of time.
Let's start with that one: nobody needed one more programming language. Nobody will "see the light" if every new technology requires one more knowledge investment. Somebody must tell you that programmers, DevOps, full-blown Ops, CTOs etc. are already overworked and already have to know and regularly catch up with way too much.
If Nix is aiming to help people work less on very annoying problems then it should, you, actually make them work less.
Nix's marketing is a complete mess. "We want you to think less about A and B so here, now learn, X, Y, Z and you should still know A and B -- but it gets better after, one day!".
Nah.
It's fine that you found technology that you love but your bias is very clearly visible and you lack the introspection skills to see that Nix is not that impressive.
Give me a `curl ... | bash` installer plus instant onboarding plus zero upkeep (an oft complaint about Nix btw) and I am sold. Anything less than that, to me you are just one more voice in a huge crowd where everyone screams "use my thing, it's amazing!".
Differentiate yourself and people will flock to you without you having to lift a finger. The fact that this hasn't happened yet is a strong hint that Nix fans are refusing to notice and take a lesson from.