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Why NixOS is the Future - YouTube (youtube.com)
submitted 1 day ago by ruffsl@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev
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What other approaches do folks use to deterministically customize Linux?

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[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

I think Snowflake OS is dead. The NixOS community didn't really get behind it for whatever reason. My guess is that many people don't understand enough about NixOS to contribute, but those that do are too proud of their ability to understand it that making it easier for others would seemingly devalue it. I have noticed that many nerds attach a sense of self-worth to understanding difficult things and will fight tooth and nail when those things are made more simple as it will diminish their self-worth.

Given all options and packages in nixpkgs are already machine readable and indexed, supplying a GUI based tool to procedurally generate nix codes

Nix can create attribute sets from JSON, so there isn't a need to generate nix code. Projects like npins do this albeit for another purpose (locking dependencies without flakes).

Anyway, NixOS is lightyears away from a noon friendly OS because it's also terribly far away from a dev friendly OS.

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[-] ruffsl@programming.dev 3 points 8 hours ago

Ah, that's a shame. Thanks for the context though.

I did feel a little bit of that slight dismissal or elitism from the thread I linked above about the graphical installer ISO. Although I think the relative surge of new users after graphical ISO's implementation did end up changing some minds on the merit of its continual development.

It seems like some tools just never fully realize their potential market demand until they're finally implemented and consequently adopted. Quite the catch 22.

I also wonder if it's a bit of a motivational aspect for individual contributors, as in demand with mostly originate from novice users who've yet to master the Nix language, yet by the time one's gained enough experience to contribute to Snowflake OS, you've kind of grown out of outgrow the need for it. That kind of reflects my personal interests around graphical programming, as I became more familiar with various languages, my inkling for a graphical representation of control flow gradually waned.

Still, I think lowering the barrier to adoption is in the long run best serves the community and in sustaining new contributors. Sort of like the conventional Greek proverb:

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Nix can create attribute sets from JSON, so there isn't a need to generate nix code.

Is there a good way of mixing and mashing JSON attribute sets with conventional nix config files? Perhaps relegating some config to machine-generated JSON, and some hand crafted configs?

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I agree with the points you are making. As for loss of interest for making things graphical, in my case it's just a lack of time. If I had time, SnowflakeOS would have my contributions.

Is there a good way of mixing and mashing JSON attribute sets with conventional nix config files? Perhaps relegating some config to machine-generated JSON, and some hand crafted configs?

For sure. I'm on mobile right now but something like

{...}:
builtins.fromJson( 
  builtins.readFile ./path/to/configuration.json
)

and importing that in your configuration.nix should do the trick. You have handcrafted stuff in another nix file, but it will be your responsibility to make it work with the imported/managed JSON. Maybe SnowflakeOS even does that. I'm not sure.

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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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