[jordanbeiber]

Biggest drawback of ansible is that it is stateless and as such you can’t simply declare a desired system state and apply it.

Nix is absolutely awesome in that regard.

Possibly this is Ansibles biggest strength as well, as it feels incredibly simple to get going.

Salt has a much steeper learning curve due to both weird nomenclature and the infrastructure.

Nix is in many ways easy to use “on the surface” but quickly becomes hairy as you dive deeper.

Just my 2c having spent quite some time with all three.

[ed25519FUUU]

Maybe I’m naive but I’ve just never found various “states” to be desired in config management. It’s always binary: either in the “right” state or a bad one!

[jordanbeiber]

If you have drift in actual state using Ansible you have to account for all eventualities and you simply can’t declare “make my system(s) look like this”.

I’m talking “desired state” here and how to fulfill it - not “various states to switch between”.

With nix(os) I feel you treat a machine more like an appliance!