Finally managed to enable VSCode extensions without doing it imperatively or using home manager I’m so happy I could cry 😭 😭 😭

It actually wasn’t even that bad, I’m just terrible at understanding documentation I guess

	(vscode-with-extensions.override {
		vscodeExtensions = with vscode-extensions; [
			bodil.blueprint-gtk          # Gtk Bluprint language support
			ms-vscode.makefile-tools     # Makefile language support
			bbenoist.nix                 # Nix language support
			ms-python.python             # Python language support
			naumovs.color-highlight      # Color Highlight
			ms-azuretools.vscode-docker  # Docker
			donjayamanne.githistory      # Git History
			seatonjiang.gitmoji-vscode   # Gitmoji
		];
	})

Wow I had no idea you could do that, I’ll try it thanks ! °o°

I think I might have been misusing the term “outdated”, the packages are a few versions behind but they do work. I haven’t run into packages that didn’t work except because of path issues (fixed by using steam-run).

Wait how does Nix Unstable have a better score than the AUR? With four times less maintainers? That’s really impressive, especially considering how much more simple Arch packages are to make.

Yes it’s a headache if you don’t have a clue what you’re doing and suck at coding like me, but the good parts might make the headache worth it depending on what you want of your distro. A week ago I couldn’t wait to get a new laptop to reinstall Arch, but now I’m actually wondering if I should keep trying Nix… OH GOD HAVE I CAUGHT THE NIX BRAIN CANCER? 😭

Oh cool that’s good to know!

There’s one evil genius responsible for both JSON and JavaScript? °o°

Succinctly : “OH GOD MY EEEEEYES”

I’m not a fan of nested parenthesis… but aside from that I don’t know much about the language, is it more convenient? Does it also suffer from the error messages from hell problem?

That link is amazing… they even have maps 😂 !

I’m sure it’ll get better once I’m more used to it, just venting a bit. Sorry for the rant

Yes emoji use is proportional to the decrease in my sanity after those two weeks

I’ve been stuck on Nix for two weeks because I thought it would be a good idea to put a distro I had never used but that wouldn’t break on my backup laptop in case my main one ever broke. I just couldn’t force myself to install debian, not that I have anything against debian, it’s just… kinda boring, while Nix seemed very interesting. IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME I SWEAR.

Guess what happened… I broke Arch. Then I reinstalled and the next day the laptop broke. Then the next day I tried to get my data back and the hard drive broke. So, backup laptop with Nix for two weeks…

• I really really really like the declarative stuff. Installing packages through config files is so nice I’ll never lose track of what I’ve installed ever again 🥰 🥰 🥰 I was already using a git repo for all my config files + GNU Stow to symlink everything to its proper place, so adding the .nix configs to that setup was very easy.
• Having a clean system on rebuild is great. No more clutter left everywhere that I don’t know about, no more half broken stuff left lying around.

But…

• It’s not Arch. Not Nix’s fault, but I kept hearing that it would be “like Arch but declarative”… and it’s really not 😑 Everything seems over-complicated vs as simple as possible.
• I absolutely hate the language.
• What’s with those error messages from hell???
• And speaking of hell, every language that can’t just use indentations like YAML instead of cluttering the code with {} and [] and () should have been relegated to the darkest pit of hell 20 years ago. But points to Nix for being less awful than JSON (the comma on every line but not the last thingy make me want to build a time machine to go murder the grandparents of whoever thought it was a good idea)
• Packages are out of date even in the unstable branch (I know it’s unfair since it’s not trying to be a rolling release… but… but…)
• Where are the source packages? Is that an Arch only thing? I liked having packages that automatically use the latest git commit without needing to manually install from source and manually reinstall each time I want an update like a medieval peasant… 😭
• Nix packages are weird. Even someone who’s terrible at coding like me can read Arch PKGBUILDS… I miss you Arch 😢
• Apps not working because of paths that don’t exist on Nix… what do you mean I need to patch the package myself? 😭 But at least there’s steam-run, great preserver of what’s left of my sanity.
• Can’t wrap my head around installing some stuff like VSCode extensions (the advice I got was "don’t bother just do it imperatively…) (Edit: Finally figured it out!!!)
• Wiki is often sparse on info and not very helpful if you don’t already know what you are doing (and I clearly don’t 😅)
• Hidden configs. Some stuff works on its own like pipewire even though I haven’t installed or configured it (I went with a minimal install that just gave me a tty then build from there, no DE), and how it’s already configured is not in the default config files. It’s very confusing not knowing why some stuff works and how it’s configured by default.

But it’s kinda growing on me. Like mold. Or cancer. Brain cancer.

Suicide Linux

That’s so neat

alias nmtui="NEWT_COLORS='root=black,black;window=black,black;border=white,black;listbox=white,black;label=blue,black;checkbox=red,black;title=green,black;button=white,red;actsellistbox=white,red;actlistbox=white,gray;compactbutton=white,gray;actcheckbox=white,blue;entry=lightgray,black;textbox=blue,black' nmtui"

It’s nmtui but pretty!

I’m not sure why you wouldn’t want the ASCII-Draw flatpak, but that’s not the only way to get it:

• there’s a Snap
• it can be installed from source
• there’s also an AUR package

But maybe you’re not on Arch, don’t like Snaps (can’t blame anyone for that) and don’t want to install from source (same)? What type of package are you looking for? Only native package? For which distro?

Yeah using docker is the most reliable way to do it

oh I thought it would work only with the official abbreviations, it’s nice to know!

Oh so that’s where the term VRAM comes from! 🤯

It’s definitely usable if you know the right abbreviations to use, and it seems a lot more concise which much be convenient if you’re used to the syntax! But I find natural language also has a lot of advantages, especially for converting units you don’t see often and have no clue how to abbreviate, like when watching videos that give you measurements in weird units. Plus my brain tends to freeze when something looks like maths, so natural language is easier to use for me (even though I know it’s THE EXACT SAME calculation 😅 ).