I feel like the author over-sells the 'simplicity' of NixOS.
I agree that NixOS modules are a not-that-hard way to manage a service like this, especially for situations like a homelab. But I'd only describe them as 'not that hard' to someone who was already used to configuring a NixOS system.
Specifically for the use case of "running a service of some go server", it's going to be much easier for someone with no prior NixOS experience to either run it with docker-compose, or otherwise write a systemd unit.
With NixOS, there's a lot to learn, and a lot to know (especially if you didn't get something to work the way you wanted it to). e.g. the author's module makes use of a systemd service. You might not have to recall the syntax; but you do have to understand what a systemd unit is.
On the other hand, I agree that the stuff like "enabling the prometheus node exporter" is a good example of how useful a good collection of NixOS modules can be:
Author of the talk here. It's worth noting that the conference was a systemd conference, so I had a reasonable expectation that people attending knew about systemd units. I will add an author's note to that bit.
> Of course, complain about this online and a certain tangerine community funded by big YAML will decry that you should use Kubernetes to simplify all this down to "simple" and "easy to understand" things, conveniently ignoring that they use a string templating language for structured data.
My heart swells that this is entering the Overton window. '{{ | indent 2 }}' is a crime against computer science.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 24.7 ms ] threadLooks like mixing up YPbPr cables?
I agree that NixOS modules are a not-that-hard way to manage a service like this, especially for situations like a homelab. But I'd only describe them as 'not that hard' to someone who was already used to configuring a NixOS system.
Specifically for the use case of "running a service of some go server", it's going to be much easier for someone with no prior NixOS experience to either run it with docker-compose, or otherwise write a systemd unit.
With NixOS, there's a lot to learn, and a lot to know (especially if you didn't get something to work the way you wanted it to). e.g. the author's module makes use of a systemd service. You might not have to recall the syntax; but you do have to understand what a systemd unit is.
On the other hand, I agree that the stuff like "enabling the prometheus node exporter" is a good example of how useful a good collection of NixOS modules can be:
My heart swells that this is entering the Overton window. '{{ | indent 2 }}' is a crime against computer science.