I’m interested in the topic in general, but not in explaining that declarative systems don’t solve the problem of continuously changing software (e.g., for security updates, changing landscape), and the need to update configs that goes along with it. Hope that helps!

Okay, not really interested in this discussion. Of course, I can also keep running Debian 10 forever

Except that things change as well in (or rather “around”) declarative systems, and you have to update your config files as well. That’s because the underlying software changes, and it has nothing to do with whether your system is declarative or not. You just need to put in the work to update your configs at a different point in time.

For everyone who doesn’t have several different systems to maintain, I find the advantages of nixOS to be marginal. Sure, you can argue about atomicity and all, but honestly I don’t remember ever running into a serious problem with debian either. The huge package repo is nice, but I rarely encounter an app I can’t get through apt, flatpak, or as an appimage.

At the same time, nix also has various downsides. Documentation sucks. There are two main ways to manage the system, they both pretend to be the better one, and it’s super hard to even get started. That’s not an issue with the technology, but just a lack of priority. Guix is much better on that end (but also comes with the same marginal advantages).

On the other hand, debian has a stable community, with proper processes, democratic structures etc.

This is a nice, kind of old presentation from debconf, where people discussed nix and how this could be useful in a debian context as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGrcLEweglg

So, if you FOMO, don’t worry. Debian and other options have this on the radar and have their ways to adapt (even if slowly)

Hm, not sure if Nintendo is the right target here. Sure, they are popular with a certain crowd, but the argument is not super convincing. Why would a Japanese company that has a global business unnecessarily get involved in American politics? What would there be for them to win? New tariffs? Try to find an American company and shit on them, that might work better. Like Disney, Amazon, Meta, Apple, for example. Apple in particular might be a good target at the moment. Their new products are shit, people hate the direction everything is taking, but still have a deep attachment to the company (weirdest kink ever, if you ask me).

To me, Nintendo here just acts as a big corp doing big corp things. Make as much money as possible and wherever possible, don’t mess with politics. They would be a better target if this were about Japanese politics, although unfortunately nobody cares about politics here and the fascist lot is also on the rise (“Japan first” lmao).

Waiting for the day they finally drop it… … like unity … like mir … like ubuntu mobile (or whatever it was called)

3 years, so I guess you have caught the Linux virus around that time as well?

They have a history of showing ads and sharing user data with amazon: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/privacy-ubuntu-1210-amazon-ads-and-data-leaks

Some of the other things they tried are a bit difficult to judge, but I lost my trust and count them as lock-in attempts. These include:

• snap packages (for real, just move over to flatpak already like everyone else!)
• mir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_(software)

Notable good parts that I have not mentioned, but maybe should out of fairness:

• unity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_(user_interface)
• I also think canonical was among the first to try and build some form of Linux mobile OS with some interesting ideas

“crashes”

True, the apt packages can get outdated (or are already outdated at release time :) ). But tbh, for me that mainly affects the desktop environment these days and KDE is already pretty neat anyway. The CLI tools I use don’t change as much anymore, and the GUI tools are usually available as a flatpak so up-to-date.

Intolerable, scammy OS. Everything good in Ubuntu these days can be traced back to other projects, such as debian/Gnome/KDE. Whatever Canonical adds to that is just an attempt to lock you in their ecosystem or wring money out of you.

Just use debian instead.

Which is, btw, no real effect but just autocorrelation:

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2022/04/08/the-dunning-kruger-effect-is-autocorrelation/

Right, how is anything more sustainable than Debian?

Yes, good point. One time I got a replacement battery for my FP1 at no costs IIRC. On the hardware side it’s definitely an advantage to have replaceable parts.

The chip was made by MediaTek and Google just provides Android and usually no firmware support in the first place… So how exactly is this related to Google?

Newer versions of Android were not available for the FP1. Older versions didn’t get the security updates. That was the issue.

That sounds like a browser issue which is unrelated to the OS.

No, it was not a browser issue. I don’t remember which one, maybe heartbleed, or any other of the famous vulnerabilities with a logo and a website.

Uhm what did you expect from a 1st generation smartphone made in 2013? That the software will always be up-to-date even 10 years later?

Well, that is exactly the claim, isn’t it? “The one that lasts” implies for me that it doesn’t randomly become unusable after a few years, even though the hardware is technically still fine. Smartphones have now reached a point of stagnating innovation. We already have most functionality we need, so it’s in theory a good time to produce phones that last until the hardware falls apart.

What is their plan to provide long-term support? How long do they say they will support it? I had the FP1 and after a few years there were no more firmware updates from I think Qualcomm. Google eventually stopped supporting the chip for newer android versions, and fairphone didn’t have the resources to do it on their own. Then there was a major security vulnerability. I don’t remember which one, but basically remote code execution was possible just by visiting a website. With no updates for the FP1, it was unusable from then on for everything remotely private.

The hardware worked fine until the end, but this mess made it unusable. In comparison, my recently bought Pixel 9 gets updates until 2032.

I personally think Nix OS brings some amazing features, very few of which are relevant for me as a regular laptop user without my own server farm. Sure, reproducible builds and dynamic package versions are neat. But if it takes me 1000 hrs to learn how to write a functional config file that I now have to keep updated, if I have to work with some weird repository, there is no documentation and community infighting… Nah, I’ll stick to debian (BTW) for a while.

And I thought all Arch users already switched to Nix OS (BTW)

“refuse” lol as if there were a general requirement to use this shit

When did you last update your system? It should call Microsoft, not Red Hat.

I’d love some FALGSC!