[abuggia]

In the past three weeks I've explored two use cases:

1. Macbook setup via nix-darwin + home-manager. Now that I've put in the time, I'm going to use it for my personal and family laptops. I would probably not recommend anyone else do this if they have not previously used Nix. Very high ramp given the benefits.

2. Dev environments[1]. I started using nix+direnv for my side projects. This was quick and easy to get started with and has been great. Would recommend anyone look into it via the link below.

I have not tried installing/using NixOS.

[1] https://determinate.systems/posts/nix-direnv

[pxc]

> I have not tried installing/using NixOS

It's like Nix-Darwin but without any setup issues, spared from breakage related to OS upgrades, but also with fewer escape hatches (Flatpak is the main easy one it does provide, also steam-run) for app installation. If you do enjoy Nix-Darwin once you get it going and you at least somewhat enjoy Linux desktops, you'd probably enjoy it as a daily driver.

I would say that for users new to the Nix ecosystem, NixOS on a spare machine is the most gentle and pleasant way to introduce the module system and declarative Nix config. It tends to be smoother than Home Manager or Nix-Darwin, and it's a lot more complete than either, both because it has more users. But a spare machine is a good choice for those who aren't yet sure that they like or care about Nix, because if something is missing or non-obvious, the only way out is through— you have to dive deep.

NixOS is so mature these days compared to when I first picked it up, though. Packaging work just to get by on the day-to-day is way more rare, and there are a lot more examples around. A Linux hobbyist who is prepared to struggle a bit can definitely just dive right in and have a good time, for sure.

[abuggia]

Cool! There were definitely some hacks/issues with nix-darwin though most of my time was probably spent porting my neovim config[1] (still working on it) which should mostly carry over if I want to check out NixOS. I'll probably take the spare machine approach as you mentioned.

[1] https://github.com/abuggia/neovim-flake

[pxc]

Nice! I've been playing around with NixVim¹ for my neovim config on macOS/Nix-Darwin at work, but I haven't done much with it since I mostly use Emacs with Evil.

Neovim is my 'spare editor', so my needs for it are simple. :)

--

1: https://github.com/nix-community/nixvim

[b0afc375b5]

Have you tried / are you going to try devenv or devbox for development environments? I'm curious to know what other people think. As for me I'll try it as soon as I finish reinstalling my macos.

[abuggia]

I have not tried either yet. There seems to be a few of these nix-based dev envs coming out which is one reason I became curious. I wanted to learn baseline nix before jumping into any of these.

If you are using nix-darwin to set up your macos, I'd be curious to hear about your experience.