I found this interesting. I picked dup NixOS a few months back using configuration.nix and home.nix and completely avoided flakes all together because it was an experimental feature that will have breaking changes going forward.
I feel like this book jumps into flakes too soon. it should have more around the configuration.nix file, its purpose and uses, and then show systematically why one may need a home.nix file and then maybe show why something like configuration.nix/home.nix might not serve some users (and then introduction flakes for those individuals.)
i went this same route and was actually looking at flakes wondering "Why is everyone using something that's not stable"
it took a ton of time before I finally switched to flakes. They really need better messaging about this because the environments are incredibly complicated.. the possible choices are cumbersome.
The problems are a matrix of
- root daemon or non-root daemon
- nixos or non-nixos
- home-manager or non-home-manager
- what OS are you on?
- flakes or non-flakes
- stable or unstable
i'm happy with nix and love it but i definitely stumbled on al lof the mentioned
I feel like this book jumps into flakes too soon. it should have more around the configuration.nix file, its purpose and uses, and then show systematically why one may need a home.nix file and then maybe show why something like configuration.nix/home.nix might not serve some users (and then introduction flakes for those individuals.)