nix.dev VS nixos-wsl-starter

Nix (https://nix.dev/) can provide all of this, although in a smarter way than just through dumping everything in the VCS. Some projects use it already to provide a reproducible development environment and if done right a clean build is just a `nix-build` away.

Author doesn’t mention it but I wonder if tried or considered Nix/NixOS’s reproducible developer environments and ruled them out for any reason. I couldn’t tell from the article if there’s something unique to his requirements that disqualifies them.

https://nixos.org/explore

https://nix.dev/

if you want something a more in-depth, zero to nix is a great resource for all things nix (they have a section dedicated to flakes here, but i would pay attention to the notice at the top about reading some other things first), along with nix.dev, and of course, the nixos wiki article on flakes

On nix.dev it say I would need to cross compile to make it work, is there some way in which i can build natively on my machine.

Hey

Cachix founder here. Here are a few links for getting started:

- https://nix.dev Nix tutorials

- https://devenv.sh Fast, Declarative, Reproducible, and Composable Developer Environments

Let me know if you have any questions. Domen

Nix pills and nix.dev are my favorites, alongside the official documentation.

https://nix.dev/ is the best in depth resource I know but it's a work in progress.

For folks looking to understand why this is so https://nix.dev and https://devenv.sh/

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