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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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TechTakes
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I don't know how well this fits here, but, well I don't know where else to post nixos drama. So without further ado:
NixOS drama
Quick introduction: nix is package manager that allows you to reproducibly build any piece of software. It has been exploding in popularity over the past few years and has gotten to the point of receiving commercial endorsement. It has also received endorsement from more controversial companies, and this is where issues start to brew
A few days ago, after the success of an open letter condemning nixcons sponsorship of Anduril, a new open letter showed up. This time it discusses the creator of nix, Eelco Dolstra, and how he is becoming detrimental towards the goals of the nix community. The letter is not quite as well received as the anti-anduril letter, mostly because of its padded length and aggressive tone. I think delroth captures my personal feelings towards this letter.
Furthermore, Eelco has dropped a response, which ends in him suggesting users to move away from the community-run nix foundation and towards his consulting company, Determinate Systems. Needless to say I don't like this call towards division at all.
Now I haven't don't a particularly deep analysis of this whole drama, since I'm basically merely a user and not all that active in the development of nix. Here is a link for if you want to get more details from someone who did go more in depth dissecting both articles
we have some running commentary on FreeAssembly, a smaller community on the same instance as TechTakes for open source collaboration. I don’t mind having posts about the open letter here too though; what happens to Nix will have an impact on our instance, because it’s a NixOS deployment and because I (the infrastructure admin) have previously been fairly active in the Nix community.
for the record (and to summarize the other thread), there’s not a lot of gray to my stance: anduril, eelco, and friends can fuck off, and I regret letting folks convince me that the systemic problems I’d heard about from marginalized folks in the Nix community were minor or solved. we unfortunately know what the Nix project will look like if it continues down this path: it’ll become something a lot like Urbit, which is a grim fucking fate for something I think is still technologically worthwhile.
Which more people should be comfortable with doing tbh. It's amazing how our culture moved towards editorialising and couching everything in ambiguities when "nazi punks fuck off" is all you need for most day-to-day moral quandaries.
@V0ldek @self And not just the song title - the lyrics are so on point all the way through:
You still think swastikas look cool
The real Nazis run your schools
They're coaches, businessmen and cops
In a real fourth Reich you'll be the first to go
well, dolstra's actions vidicated the open letter completely; also i really hate using the dismissive phrase “drama” for something that is actually a large issue with open source project governance and acceptance of blood money.
Was about to say something similar wrt “drama”, thanks for beating me to it