cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/15781466
Am I out of touch?
No, it’s the forward-thinking generation of software engineers that want elegant, reliable, declarative systems that are wrong.
Look, if you love declarative systems that’s cool. I’m genuinely happy for you that you have much better options now. That can only be good.
That being said, they only solve problems that I don’t have. I do not care even the tiniest amount about whether a system is declarative or not, and I’m definitely not going to go out of my way to seek them out. If you want to call that “out of touch” then so be it.
I just like them because my system feels “cleaner.” Always drove me nuts with Arch or Debian when you install something, let’s say it requires ~20 decencies, then you remove it later, run the respective dependency clean command, and it only removes lets say ~12 packages. Like where did those 8 dependencies go? Are they just stuck on my system forever? Atomic desktops don’t have this issue which I really appreciate.
May I introduce you to our lord and savior portage?
I have yet to climb Mt. Gentoo.
The 8 dependencies must be an optional dependency for some other package you already have installed. That said, that kind of stuff is the main reason I want to try NixOS - any time I install something, configure something, etc. I’m risking forgetting about it and getting tripped up over it down the line, with no good way to check.
I want this but without learning a new functional language to do it.
Just waiting for one that requires you to compile one Monad to define your whole distro. Types all the way.
Then I’m writing a blog post how your Linux distro is a burrito.
ostree go brrrr
Aeon is the way
Imagine being so devoid of soul and spirit you turn your OS into kubernetes
Oh I definitely am out of touch, but I think I’ll live with that 😄
Eh, bring it all on. Part of what is great about FOSS is the vibrant ecosystem. I welcome new stuff, even if I don’t have much use for it.
I do think it makes a lot of sense for certain use cases. Like my Steam Deck, great use case for an immutable distro.
Another is school or work deployments where you just need a herd of identical, generic systems or thin clients that run the same small set of applications.
Hehe, but unix shell scripting can do so much…
I don’t need it, I never needed it, and thus I will not use it
If one day I need it I will use it
Capiche?
I just treat my systems like cattle not pets. Get out of line and I will kill ya and bring a fresh copy online
Immutable and Declarative OS design is simply an option. I think it’s a damn good one, but right now, it’s not for me. That could easily change in the near future.
The idea excites me. A potential hardened OS that user-friendly could be a great option for Business and Academic computing.
What’s the best immutable OS?
NixOS
