Add daily email for 15/04/25

source/_daily_emails/2025-04-15.md

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+---
+title: nix is like nvm, but for everything
+date: 2025-04-15
+permalink: daily/2025/04/15/nix-nvm
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - nix
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+  nix is like nvm, but for everything.
+---
+
+I was recently explaining and demonstrating Nix and direnv to a colleague and showing how, when I moved into a directory, new packages or different versions of packages became available.
+
+If I left the directory, I was reverted back to my global packages and versions.
+
+In this demonstration, I was showing how I can have different versions of PHP and node for a particular project - replacing a lot of what I'd previously used tools like Vagrant and Docker for.
+
+I came up with a comparison between Nix and nvm - the node version manager - a tool that allows you to install multiple versions of nodejs and switch between them.
+
+Using Nix and direnv is more seamless, but it works for everything.
+
+I'm able to switch versions of PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL or anything else I need with Nix.
+
+Not just node, and without needing containers.