Re: Advantages over Nix?

[zimoun]

Hi Taylan.

On Mon, 26 Oct 2020 at 08:42, Taylan Kammer <taylan.kammer@gmail.com> wrote:

> However, currently at my workplace I'm trying to pitch Nix/Guix as a
> better way of generating Docker container images, opposed to the impure
> Dockerfile way of doing it.

The pitch really depends on the background of your workplace.
Providing scientific C applications running on HPC clusters is not the
same as running Python/JS/SQL web services.


> (I've never really worked with Docker yet so my understanding is very
> shallow; I hope what I'm saying makes sense.  My understanding is that
> via Dockerfiles you generate images imperatively, and the results are
> dependent on the state of the universe.  Yuck!)

The main pitfall is not the Dockerfile per se but the classical
distribution it often implies.  Well, this video is explaining better
than my words. :-)

https://archive.fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/gnu_guix_new_approach_to_software_distribution/


> So now the question is: given that Nix is older and thus probably more
> mature, are there any non-subjective, non-ideological reasons to pick
> Guix over Nix?

I do not know Nix.  The killer features I cannot work without now are:

 - time-machine
 - environment (alone, with --pure or --container)
 - pack -f docker
 - repl


> TL;DR: sell Guix (over Nix) to someone who doesn't care about GNU or
> Scheme?

For reference, Pierre started this [1] and I do not remember the end
of the story.   IMHO, the nice move is to write down typical use
cases/scenarii that Guix solves and then the audience can pick the one
they are interested in or the one that talks to them as an entry
point.  Therefore, to convince my co-workers, I pick our typical
workflow, show how it works (or would work) with Guix, pointing out
what are the current drawbacks of the current workflow and how Guix
improves the situation or sometimes only one specific part of the
workflow.  (My co-workers are biologists so they do not care much
about the computational tools since the one who is doing. ;-))

1: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2020-01/msg00002.html

All the best,
simon