Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by capableweb 1706 days ago
I don't understand how you can use docker-compose, docker, Kubernetes or anything else to achieve the same thing as NixOS. NixOS gives you a fully reproducible personal computing system, from boot config, window manager, partitioning to applications, home directories and everything in between.

What mainstream options are available for doing this? Guix could be one option, but it's not mainstream so I'm not sure what tools you are referring to.
3 comments
porker 1706 days ago
You are talking past the comment that you replied to, and you haven't answered it.
link
capableweb 1704 days ago
Guess I'm missing the whole subject of this thread then. The submission is about NixOS, which is for full systems (like in personal computers), something you cannot build with either Docker nor Kubernetes, the technologies that WastingMyTime89 said seems to compete with NixOS.
link
stjohnswarts 1706 days ago
Eh you can do the same thing (or close enough) with a bash install script on a "stock" linux system and then a docker set up with the applications that that you want. Or with ansible. it really depends on the end goal. Not everyone needs every single bit to be the same. Or you can just image a drive. It depends on the end goal and often multiple solutions will get you there.
link
ris 1706 days ago
These are the nasty solutions I have to deal with at work all the time and my entire job consists of handling things when the "quick" bash cloud init script that someone wrote and various people have made additions to over the years goes wrong.

Bash scripts fail at this task because they are generally not convergent. Ansible makes a basic effort at being convergent, but most of the scripts I've seen are extremely naive about the ways in which a configuration can diverge.

link
_red 1706 days ago
moreover, you can also use docker digest instead of tags, that is: instead of docker pull postgresql:11 you can do docker pull postgresql@sha:xxxx....
link
mixmastamyk 1706 days ago
And why would someone want that? Sure it sounds theoretically nice, especially if I was still working in IT. But learning another system with a poor ui has a large cost for a theoretical benefit.
link