Usually, I prefer manually installing the packages needed for getting started with a new language or technlogy.

I avoid using distro package managers since they tend to be a bit outdated in this regard, and specialised package managers like SDKMAN! seem overkill for one or more packages. Exceptions being languages with excellent tooling and version management like Rust or Ocaml.

I’ve been doing this for a while and was wondering what the general consensus is

Edit: Thanks for your replies everyone! I’ve decided to stick with my distro package manager.

  • Shareni@programming.dev
    2·
    2 months ago

    Damn, that’s a wild ride.

    I’m honestly not sure how useful that flakehub is, and I feel the same dislike as I do for like AUR. First time I’m seeing it though.

    In your experience, do you think using nix develop would slim things down without sacrificing too much comfort?

    Honestly, I’ve only ever used it a few times when I see that a repo has it. I checked out some of them, and with barely no nix language knowledge I was able to roughly understand what’s going on, but I doubt I’d be able to make it without a template or LLM.

    I’ll keep devbox in mind if I ever need that functionality.

    • QuazarOmegaA
      2·
      2 months ago

      I’m honestly not sure how useful that flakehub

      Me neither, I completely skipped over it, but it sounds interesting, maybe it wouldn’t be as wonky as the AUR since it’s Nix at least, idk

      with barely no nix language knowledge I was able to roughly understand what’s going on

      That’s actually great! Maybe I’ll try those as well, since sooner or later I’ll have to learn the Nix language anyways and keeping a purer system is always a good thing if possible.

      Good luck with devbox btw

      edited: how tf did I end up ordering the text like that?

      • Shareni@programming.dev
        2·
        2 months ago

        maybe it wouldn’t be as wonky as the AUR since it’s Nix at least

        That’s for sure, since nix handles dependencies a lot better than pacman. But I meant that due to the sheer size of nixpkgs, and the way you can add a repo to your flakes, there’s no real need for it. But that’s just pure speculation.

        I think a sensible progression is: nix + home-manager -> flakes -> develop -> nixOS

        You build on previous knowledge without getting overwhelmed. I tried using guixos without ever using guix or nix, and it’s really not nice when you have to spend a week trying to figure out how to do something that takes you 5 mins in a regular distro. It even took me a few attempts to get started with nix simply because the docs are abysmal, almost all info is on nixos, and home-manager is rarely mentioned.