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by quyse 1276 days ago
What does it actually do?

From the front page I expected maybe some web interface for doing various tasks, such as Nix package management or setting up Let's Encrypt, etc, but judging from the docs, everything should be done via standard Nix/NixOS commands in command line. So, I'm sorry, what service Shipnix actually provides, apart from initial setup of the server with NixOS and SSH keys, that would justify paying monthly? At least it's not clear from the docs.
2 comments
kodefant 1276 days ago
Hi! The main strengths of Shipnix right now is ease of provisoning and deployment. And I will continue to add convenient starters that gives you a readily bootstrapped server in several technologies.

Most of what you would need to do is either in the UI or in the source code. They complement eachother. And I think it's a great way to learn Nix.

The NixOS configuration lets you set up LetsEncrypt and domain names declaratively through code. That's one of the strengths in my opinion, but taste might vary.

This also means no vendor lock-in. That being said, it might be that not everyone gets value of it.

I created this because I wanted something that organizes my servers nicely, saves build logs for debugging, lets me easily rollback if a build fails and is easy to managee and deploy.

Thanks for the feedback. I will work further on communicating this in the docs

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pbronez 1276 days ago
Looks like Digital Ocean doesn't support NixOS as a Base OS. Seems this just adds that?
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MuffinFlavored 1276 days ago
https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/images/custom-images/

Does this not cover it?

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kodefant 1275 days ago
Just to be clear: I don't charge for this feature.

It's a free offering in Shipnix for everyone who is registered, and then you are free to create servers with this image through the DigitalOcean dashboard if that's what you prefer.

When a new NixOs release is ready, you can log into the Shipnix dashboard, and replace the image with the current stable one, also at no charge.

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Smaug123 1276 days ago
Not out of the box, although you can upload a custom image to a Space, or you can instantiate a machine as any other Linux distribution and then assimilate it with nixos-infect or similar.
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neeh0 1275 days ago
Used custom images with NixOS few times. Works OK.
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