I am genuinely confused. Are you saying dotfile managers need to be more complex? Or that nix's problem space is the only solution for the things in nix's domain? (of which dotfiles are just one—via home manager)

I thought it was the former but "just pulling a precompiled, dynamically linked binary and hoping it works" makes me think we're not on the same page since to me that has nothing to do with dotfiles.

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tfrancisl 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm saying that I value the completeness (thoroughness may be a better word) as well as the reproducability and portability that nix ensures over convenience. I cant tell you the amount of times I've pulled a precompiled tool and it just doesnt work because of one quirk of their packaging or another.

Also noting that I don't see the problem as "dotfile management" but as "system AND user configuration management" which extends beyond some plain text files in $HOME.

ed.: and home manager is just one tool which provides not only dotfile management, but drvs for installing particular programs and configuring then in highly opinionated ways -- I do not use it

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bronson 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> I can't tell you the amount of times I've pulled a precompiled tool and it just doesnt work because of one quirk of their packaging or another.

This is a serious problem in Nix too. I often trip over buggy and abandoned Nix packages. Nix often makes it easy to roll back or work around them, but they're absolutely there.

	▲	colordrops 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They still build though. No one said anything about Nix being a solution to buggy software or bad maintainers, that's an absurd expectation.

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drdexebtjl 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't think you're genuinely confused.

Are you really in this thread to talk about dotfile managers, or are you here to criticize Nix, given that Nix directly competes with your company's only product?

	▲	jdxcode 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Considering nothing in that reply criticized nix you’re certainly wrong. I don’t hesitate to share my opinions on nix anytime (just like nix users themselves) so I’d have no reason to be coy about my criticism. tfrancisl was polite (even though I arguably wasn’t in the beginning) so I felt it important to return the favor.