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I avoid using distro package managers since they tend to be a bit outdated in this regard, and specialised package managers like SDKMAN!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.

  • @QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
    2•8 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•8 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.