Add daily email for 2024-11-25

Nix, the package manager

source/_daily_emails/2024-11-25.md

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+---
+title: Nix, the package manager
+date: 2024-11-25
+permalink: daily/2024/11/25/nix-the-package-manager
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - devops
+  - linux
+  - nix
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+  This is a start of a mini-series of emails where I explain the different parts of the Nix ecosystem and how I use them - starting with the package manager.
+---
+
+In previous emails, [I've written briefly about Nix][0]. Over the next few days, I want to write more about it and explain the different components of the Nix ecosystem and how I use them.
+
+Firstly, Nix is a package manager, similar to apt on Ubuntu or homebrew on MacOS.
+
+It contains over 100,000 packages that can be installed once you've installed Nix and if you're on a Mac, there's nix-darwin to have it manage macOS settings too.
+
+There are two stable releases a year and a rolling "unstable" version so you can be as stable or up-to-date as you like, or you can mix and match in the same configuration.
+
+It's easy to add custom packages and apply overrides to existing packages.
+
+You can have multiple versions of the same package installed at once.
+
+And [because Nix is reproducible][1], you can get exactly the same configuration over and over again.
+
+In another email, I'll write about NixOS, but you don't need to use it to use Nix the package manager.
+
+I used a different Linux distribution when I started using Nix and installed it as a secondary package manager.
+
+If you're looking for an alternative package manager for Linux or macOS, I recommend giving Nix a try.
+
+[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2024/11/21/one-configuration-language-to-rule-them-all
+[1]: {{site.url}}/daily/2024/11/12/why-consistency-and-reproducibility-are-important