Getting my hands on a 3dfx Voodoo3 felt like such a dream.

I’ve wrapped nix-darwin, home-manager etc in a Nix configuration for macOS, with a starter template and simple installer.

I’ve been running it for a couple years, you can use it to try Nix without as much up front learning.

Almost 1000 stars!

https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

Edit: Just crossed 1k! Thanks HN

I’ve been using Nix on Mac for a couple years now and haven’t seen this behavior. Just works.

Maybe mixing sudo / user permissions during initial installation broke it. Nix is pretty unforgiving with not great error messages.

Not on macOS, but if you want run NixOS in a VM or on bare metal you can use nix-impermanence. Recreates your system/state from scratch on each reboot.

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Impermanence

I’ve beeen using Nix on macOS for years now, and I don’t imagine ever going back. Declarative software management is the future. So easy to keep my dev environment up-to-date and quickly try out new packages. Never breaks.

Also, no more docker! docker on macOS was always a pain.

I made it easy for others to try if you’re interested, almost 800 stars now:

https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

This looks like a treasure trove that I somehow missed! I'll give it a more thorough read later, but gave my star for now, thanks!

Shameless plug: I maintain a Nix for MacOS configuration starter that has a step by step guide on getting started (725+ stars).

https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

A lot of opinions on Nix here, but I manage a declarative configuration on my Mac that I now couldn’t live without. I have step by step instructions if you want to try it yourself. Many other folks have told me they find it useful too (almost 700 stars):

https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

I would argue the benefit is also it’s declarative, done forever, and your machine becomes relatively bulletproof.

Dev environment issues are a thing of the past, once you’ve defined your configuration.

If something is broken with a package, I don’t have to figure it out myself —- I just rollback, wait for someone to fix it upstream in nixpkgs and pull down the patch later.

I’ve been using Nix directly on MacOS with minimal issues for a few years now. Works great.

I hate using docker on Mac and have since replaced it with flakes and devenv.

My configuration with a step by step guide (600+ stars): https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config

I used your repo as a foundation for my setup. it was a big help getting started. Many thanks!

Here's my flake that does it: https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config/blob/main/flake....