gokrazy VS nixos-wsl-starter

Switching to gokrazy[0] was the best thing I did for my Raspberry Pi uptimes. I think a lot of that is because it defaults to using read-only partitions so the common issue of SD cards falling over when you run apt upgrade no longer happens.

But I also think that gokrazy's simplicity and design helps it be just a solid, reliable foundation to build on top of.

[0]: https://gokrazy.org/

The idea there sounds a lot like https://gokrazy.org/, which builds a minimal go userland, wrapping one or more user provided go applications, and bundles in a linux kernel.

Targets mostly at single board computers, and I think it downloads pre-built kernels (and bootloaters if needed), rather than trying to build them directly, since getting a working cross compilation toolchain set up and plumbed into the kernel compilation process is still a pain.

I've personally only used yocto/open-embedded for that which does nicely handle building the cross-compilation toolchain, kernel image, and modules. But it is kinda overkill for that task, being designed to build a whole userland too.

reminds me of https://github.com/gokrazy/gokrazy which does similar things.

https://gokrazy.org/ would like a word

Fun! We have support for running on gokrazy (https://gokrazy.org/) already, and that's probably where Unikernel Linux is more applicable for us, for when people just want a "Tailscale appliance" image.

I'll email you.

gokrazy exists! https://github.com/gokrazy/gokrazy

https://github.com/gokrazy/gokrazy for one example

NixOS is honestly the single most game-changing thing I've been introduced to in my last decade of experience in tech.

If you're interested in trying out NixOS I highly recommend either running it as an WSL2 VM[1] if you have a Windows machine or deploying it on a cheap VPS[2] to play around with.

I personally still use a Win11 desktop for compat with Adobe software and a few other bits and pieces, but I do all my serious work on a NixOS WSL2 VM.

[1]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/nixos-wsl-starter

[2]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/nixos-hetzner-cloud-starter

I've been trying to encourage people to give NixOS in VMs a try as a safe way to build up a nice working environment while still maintaining your daily driver until you're interested in/ready to switch. I have a starter template for NixOS on WSL[1] with an accompanying walkthrough[2] if you want to get an idea of how much effort this might require on your part.

[1]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/nixos-wsl-starter

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmRXXYxq8k4