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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Nix/Silverblue users: How big is the advantage if you already have 100% automated your deployments via Ansible? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by wolf@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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There is a similar question on the site which must not be named.

My question still has a little different spin:

It seems to me that one of the biggest selling points of Nix is basically infrastructure as code. (Of course being immutable etc. is nice by itself.)

I wonder now, how big the delta is for people like me: All my desktops/servers are based on Debian stable with heavy customization, but 100% automated via Ansible. It seems to me, that a lot of the vocal Nix user (fans) switched from a pet desktop and discover IaC via Nix, and that they are in the end raving about IaC (which Nix might or might not be a good vehicle for).

When I gave Silverblue a try, I totally loved it, but then to configure it for my needs, I basically would have needed to configure the host system, some containers and overlays to replicate my Debian setup, so for me it seemed like too much effort to arrive nearly at where I started. (And of course I can use distrobox/podman and have containerized environments on Debian w/o trouble.)

Am I missing something?

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[–] Laser@feddit.de 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Another aspect I like about Nix compared to what I understand from Ansible (which I used a bit but not much) is that your configuration describes your system without any hidden state. Yes, you only get your dependencies through full evaluation, but what I mean is this: Let's say you install something on a system, i.e. you add it to your list of packages, which you later remove. To my knowledge, Ansible won't remove the package if not explicitly asked. However, if you explicitly tell Ansible to not have it installed, what happens if that package is later introduced as a dependency?

Ansible will always operate on a stateful system, which is kind of the combination of what others have already mentioned – it's (EDIT: it being Nix) idempotent and there's no hidden state that will break something down the way.