• Coupon and Eligibility: Coupon code go-fly-nix offers $50 of Fly.io Credits. Valid only for new accounts not using a DevRel coupon code before.
• Talk Resources: Slides at Google Drive, script at Google Drive, and video coming soon to YouTube. Video can also be watched at https://files.xeiaso.net/video/2024/nixcon-na/index.m3u8.
• The Talk Overview: Presented by Xe Iaso, Senior Technophilosopher at Fly.io. The talk covers what Nix is, why it's better than Docker for building Docker images, and its second-order properties. It aims to bridge the gap for both new and experienced Nix users.
• Nix as a Package Manager: Nix is more than a package manager. It's a language and an operating system. It uses a domain-specific language to build packages based on instructions, which can be software, OS images, or container images.
• Docker's Limitations: Docker is widely adopted but has flaws. Builds are not deterministic, have access to the public Internet (making it hard to recreate image states), and adding packages leads to wasted space.
• Advantages of Nix over Docker: Nix allows knowing dependencies ahead of time and breaking them into fewest docker layers. It can build container images with only changed parts uploaded, sharing layers between services in a monorepo. It also enables traveling back in time to build software exactly as it was in the past and using binary caches to avoid rebuilding code.
• Building Docker Images with Nix: Examples given of building a Go program (Douglas Adams quotes server) into a Docker image using Nix. Two ways - non-layered and layered images. Layered images are more efficient as each dependency is in its own layer.
• Garnix and Homelab: Xe uses Garnix for CI on flake projects and to build homelab machine configurations. It pulls newest versions from the cache instead of building.
• Conclusion: Nix is a better Docker image builder. It makes specifying results easier, eases adoption for Docker users, shares layers, avoids rebuilding code, and results in deployable container images. Xe thanks those who helped with the talk and provides extra information. Tags: nix, nixos. Facts and circumstances may have changed since publication.