Mastodawn

Why is Nix/home-manager so slow?

Why is Nix/home-manager so slow? - Lemmy

Sorry if this is an ignorant question. I love Nix, but as a user it feels absurd that changing an option from true to false in a home-manager managed config file that then gets transpiled from Nix to TOML, for instance, takes like 10 seconds on a decently modern machine. In my world that kind of transpilation should be instant. I get that there’s more happening behind the scenes than just doing Nix -> TOML, but still. Imagine if the transpilation of config files were instant, so you could have home-manager automagically do the transpilation every time you save the file. That would be awesome, especially for programs that support hot-reloading like Hyprland or Niri. Is this a Nix issue or a home-manager issue? How much of speedup would it yield to rewrite Nix and/or home-manager in a faster language like Zig or Rust?

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Gina 20h ago

@sgharms I have an old laptop that I use to try out distros. I'll first try a fresh build and add a few things via the config file, etc. Then I'd like to compare my setup to the one being built by our gov DAWO* team for all the Dutch government desktop environments:

https://code.overheid.nl/MinBZK/DAWO-NixOS

(*DAWO = Digitally Autonomous Workspace Government)

#nixos #nix

DAWO-NixOS

Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid (DAWO) streeft naar een digitaal autonome en operabele basis voor overheidswerkplekken. De repository MinBZK/DAWO-NixOS bevat de code om werkplekken automatisch en identiek op te bouwen via het Linux-besturingssysteem NixOS.

code.overheid.nl: Het overheidsbrede codeplatform

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Momo 🏳️‍⚧️

22h ago

@astrid i think some of us #nixos #nix users can relate

Home Manager News 1d ago

The value `gtk` for `qt.platformTheme.name` is no longer rewritten to `gtk2` when setting the `QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME` session variable. It is now emitted as `gtk3`, selecting Qt's built-in GTK platform theme plugin, and no longer installs the `qtstyleplugins` and `qt6gtk2` packages. If you relied on the previous behavior, set `qt.platformTheme.name = "gtk2"` explicitly, which sets `QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2` and installs the `qtstyleplugins` and `qt6gtk2` packages providing that platform theme.
#NixOS #Nix #HomeManager

Matthias 1d ago

I spent some time writing a comparison of #Conda and #Nix since I'm exposed to both at work and personally. It's fun! Especially to see tradeoffs both had to make. This is the opening post.

https://mmesch.com/blog/2026-06-15-conda-nix-1-design-philosophy

Lobsters 1d ago

I can haz smoller NixOS ISOs? by @natkr https://lobste.rs/s/nvfvjt #nix #performance
https://natkr.com/2026-06-19-nixos-but-smol/

I can haz smoller NixOS ISOs?

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Lobsters

Natalie 1d ago

#NixOS ISOs are pretty big.. do they need to be?

https://natkr.com/2026-06-19-nixos-but-smol/

#nix

I can haz smoller NixOS ISOs? | natkr's ramblings

In which I painstakingly remove functionality from a Linux live image. Like a normal person.

Home Manager News 2d ago

The `programs.firefox.globalExtensions`, `programs.floorp.globalExtensions`, and `programs.librewolf.globalExtensions` options now assert that the browser package is managed by Home Manager. On Darwin, setting `programs.<browser>.darwinDefaultsId` also satisfies this requirement. If you used `globalExtensions` with `package = null`, set `package` to a non-null browser package or switch back to `profiles.<name>.extensions.packages`.
#NixOS #Nix #HomeManager

Lobsters 2d ago

Practical software freedom with GNU Guix via @hugoarnal https://lobste.rs/s/wvwnqs #video #nix
https://media.ccc.de/v/tdf5-136-practical-software-freedom-with-gnu-guix

Practical software freedom with GNU Guix

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Lobsters

Home Manager News 2d ago

The 'programs.opencode.settings' option now supports ordered Home Manager DAG entries in nested attribute sets. This allows order-sensitive OpenCode permission rules to be expressed with 'lib.hm.dag.entryBefore' and 'lib.hm.dag.entryAfter'.
#NixOS #Nix #HomeManager