Nix represents a different way of building reproducible software, but Nix has its own challenges, and in many ways Docker already won. So what hope is there for something like Nix in the long run? Come find out tomorrow at the @flox.dev virtual event. - ThreadSky

kelseyhightower.com • 2 days ago

Nix represents a different way of building reproducible software, but Nix has its own challenges, and in many ways Docker already won.

So what hope is there for something like Nix in the long run? Come find out tomorrow at the @flox.dev virtual event.

Reposted from Flox

We are hosting a live event this Wednesday with @kelseyhightower.com and Ron Efroni from the Nix Foundation: Why Nix, and Why Now? If you've heard of Nix ❄️ and total software flexibility appeals to you, but you don't know where to start... start here!

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bbcarr0t.bsky.social•1 day ago

A neat thing about nix is it actually lets you build docker images: https://nix.dev/tutorials/nixos/building-and-running-docker-images.html

And as a bonus, these images are often smaller than the slim equivalents of many other containers since they only use the bare minimum needed for execution

ahcuah.bsky.social•1 day ago

You picked that name on purpose? 😆😆😆

capileigh.bsky.social•1 day ago

Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. looks to have been around since at least 1996 whereas the Nix thesis was written around 2003 so it's a fair point

ahcuah.bsky.social•1 day ago

I'm old enough to remember it as a young person. The active ingredient (permethrin) was invented in 1972 and it was a big deal for handling lice infestations. "Nix" itself is a play on the word "nit" (what lice eggs are called), i.e., nixing nits.

I suspect this is all new to the younger folks.

davibonitao.bsky.social•1 day ago

Love the ideas behind nix. Last year I tried to build a portable codebase, and tried to power it with bazel and nix, but in the end went with docker and pkgx. Bazel is the only one with true windows support, pkgx is the smallest and nix the most robust. Details: https://daviws.medium.com/writing-a-portable-codebase-3c4cb681f763

darkmane.bsky.social•1 day ago

I feel like Nix and containers could work well if there were a tool to allow the switching back and forth. Let devs develop in Nix, then package into an image for deployment. Some risk of bloat there, but something I think is worth working on.

capileigh.bsky.social•1 day ago

`flox containerize` is a thing!
Imunder the hood it uses nix libraries to assemble the image, so it's possible to do what you are saying from pure Nix as well

The current state of things is pretty good, but there's also room for some exciting improvements here with the container image format itself

capileigh.bsky.social•1 day ago

docs for the curious:
https://flox.dev/docs/reference/command-reference/flox-containerize/

flox.dev•3 hours ago

We just posted a blog about this!
https://flox.dev/blog/nix-and-containers-why-not-both/

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