[theothershoe]

As someone who is not listening in on the flake stabilization process, and who just wants to use Nix my thinking is, what's the alternative? To me it looks like people can either build on the feature that exists now, or put plans on hold for who knows how long while getting by with some lesser solution, passing up public enthusiasm that could be directed to growing the Nix ecosystem in the meantime.

I'm getting the hint that some people aren't happy with the current state of flakes. But right now it's the best solution for a certain large class of problems so it's what people are going to go with. Again, as a relative outsider I see flakes as The Way Nix Works with the requirement of enabling experimental features just being a part of the Nix process. Nix is rapidly growing in popularity with a lot of people drawing the same conclusion as me. Maybe there is a better alternative to flakes in the horizon, and when it's ready I'll consider switching. But I'm not going to wait to use Nix in the meantime, and for me the best way to use Nix currently is flakes.