2y ago

Why everyone is switching to NixOS ?

Hi everyone!

I saw that NixOS is getting popularity recently. I really have no idea why and how this OS works. Can you guys help me understanding all of this ?

Thanks !

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80 comments

What about Nix's financial issues? Have they been resolved yet?
- To get it out of the way first: There are no financial issues. There are more than enough funds to continue operations as they are for a sufficiently long time.
  What is actually happening is that a long time sponsor has indicated that they (understandably) no longer want to foot the huge bill of hosting the entire archive of binary caches ($9000/mo). Finding a more sustainable setup is what the community is currently concerned with.
  There is no risk of operations shutting down any time soon, the NixOS foundation has funds set aside to continue even this unsustainable setup for at least a year. We just want to be more efficient with our and others resources going forwards.
  That's what all this you might have heard of is about.
  Btw, even if the binary cache were to go poof, we don't technically need it. NixOS is a source-based distro like Gentoo and source hosting is not a concern. The binary cache is immensely helpful though which is why we'd obviously prefer to keep it.
  
  I think AWS Gave them 12 months of free credit to host cache
  
  Yes, AWS gracefully sponsored 12 months of our S3 bill which gives us even more time to enact change.
  That's just the short term resolution though, the Nix community is still looking into more sustainable long-term solutions.
  
  $9,000/mo? Have you considered not using the most ridiculously expensive method possible?
  
  Thinking about this further..
  I can purchase 10GE fiber, at home, for $299/mo.
  I can purchase a solid 16 bay Supermixro server for around $5k
  16TB drives are $168. There's $3,700 left so let's buy 21 drives (336TB, 235TB usable under raidz3 zfs). We'll leave that last $170 for .. electricity.
  Leasing all of this from a regular hosting provider woul be much more cost effective. I work for one, what the heck are you doing man?
  
  You aren't a reputable public hoster with AWS-class uptime. That has a price too. AWS is likely overpriced though, hence the nix community still looking for better alternatives.
  
  the Nix community is still looking into more sustainable long-term solutions.

80 comments