Flox 1.0
Dev tools
development environment manager
SHOW HN2024
382points
192comments
#125of 3,515 in 2024
Top 4%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
21 positive, 53 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 17 critical, out of 92 comments about the project. Thread score -0.01.
Idea: 7 for, 10 againstExecution: 4 for, 3 againstDesign: 4 for, 1 againstPricing: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Better UX and search than plain Nix
From 2 comments
The more powerful version search that Flox (and other dev env solutions built on Nix) have compared to the regular Nix search is super useful. Glad that all these different…
tripdout on HNVery cool. I will try it out as replacement of nix profile. flox install/show/search in $HOME looks like way better UX…
starsep on HN
Simpler approach to Nix for newcomers
From 1 comment
Huge user friendly! Even more than devenv which I’m currently using. One question: does Flox need Nix preinstalled? I don't see any mention of Nix in the installation guide. If…
mrbonner on HN
Objections
Hides Nix internals, so /nix/store can fill disks
From 1 comment
One critical issue with "power of Nix without the learning curve" kind of products is that you still have Nix behind the scenes, including the /nix/store, which is intentionally…
solatic on HN
Buggy shell activation and unsupported Fish shell
From 2 comments
I tested the product on both Ubuntu and MacOS, but had a frustrating experience in both cases. I prefer using Fish, but it's not supported. So, I uninstalled it and tried with…
vrnvu on HNI tried Flox on macOS last night and noticed that it installed Nix in the default profile alongside the one Nix-Darwin manages in /run/current-system/sw/bin, and symlinked its…
pxc on HN
Unclear advantage over plain Nix or existing tools
From 2 comments
I really don't understand why should I use this over plain nix, can you elaborate?
Rucadi on HNNot to bash on the product but I really see the POC here. Nix itself already provides most of the benefits. https://mynixos.com/ has a similar proposition but concentrates more…
larusso on HN
Service components are closed source
From 1 comment
If I understand correctly, the linked repo is for flox CLI client. While it is welcome, is there a plan to open source the service components? I'd like to deploy flox on my own…
e3bc54b2 on HN
Requests
IDE integration
From 1 comment
Congrats on the launch! I love Nix. I really do. I also recognize the onboarding experience is bad at best and terrible at worst. As such I welcome any effort to make it more…
Cu3PO42 on HN
direnv support
From 1 comment
any support for a direnv driven workflow?
sigmonsays on HN
Service support like devenv
From 1 comment
There are several tools in this space now- nix is maturing and people are realizing how useful nix can be for dev envs. ``` * [devenv](devenv.sh) - I am using it and loving it,…
gregwebs on HN
Fish shell support
From 1 comment
I tried Flox on macOS last night and noticed that it installed Nix in the default profile alongside the one Nix-Darwin manages in /run/current-system/sw/bin, and symlinked its…
pxc on HN
Questions
How will Flox make money
From 1 comment
Hi Ron, congratulations on the release. My question is: how will you make money? I see you are the CEO, there is a company, and you have employees. Crunchbase links to news…
peterldowns on HN
How does it compare to devenv and devbox
From 2 comments
How do you compare to devenv and devbox? Why would I choose Flox over any of them?
methyl on HNHow does it compare to the existing Devbox project (https://www.jetpack.io/devbox)? Does Flox have an optional cloud solution as well? Can Flox install specific versions of Nix…
mikenikles on HN
How does it handle cross-platform differences
From 2 comments
So, I read about a similar-ish tool to this recently, `devenv` - it sounds like both tools are based around Nix. The other article (talking about `devenv`) was discussing a…
stephenr on HNHow does nix deal with different CPU architectures? If I have some developers using an ARM based macbook, and some devs on an x86_64 based machine, is it easy to support both…
WatchDog on HN
Alternatives named
devenv
From 2 comments
Or https://devenv.sh
mrd3v0 on HNHow do you compare to devenv and devbox? Why would I choose Flox over any of them?
methyl on HN
Devbox
From 2 comments
or https://www.jetpack.io/devbox/ :ˆ)
slekker on HNHow does Flox compare to Devbox? https://github.com/jetpack-io/devbox
codethief on HN
Dev containers
From 2 comments
I tried devbox and some other tool in that field. I then tried dev containers. Dev containers won. Hands down.
LeBit on HNSorry to be this guy, but why is Nix better than a docker dev container?
focom on HN
nix develop / nix shell with direnv
From 2 comments
What is the benefit of using Flox over plain nix-shell or nix develop?
ivanjermakov on HNwhy not use nix shell and direnv?
physPop on HN