nix allows for flakes which are 100% reproducible (ie. you copy paste a flake it would do the intended stuff only) , this make me realize that now we can have flakes for games like do you want inscryption , sure add this flake and this would install all dependencies and lutris etc. and you just have to link us to the gog-games.to / fitgirl-repack / dodi-repack variant (preferrably , gog-games.to since you can verify it with gog) (i have picked only the goat of gaming piracy from megathread) , imo this can give huge boost to gaming in linux and wine is literally really close to giving native performance and you wont even see the difference
the same logic can be applied to ms excel , powerpoint etc. but i dont see the point after using libreoffice (literally the best thing ever)
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We are not in want of such solutions, Lutris and other existing solutions are capable of making game-specific environments already. The main problem is having enough volunteers to painstakingly run, test and submit the exact dependency parameters for each game that makes it run correctly. Same will be the issue even if we shift to Nix or anything else. The problem is manpower scarcity, not lack of tech.
I think Flatpak or AppImages would be a more appropriate distribution method, as much as I love nix and flakes.
I only understand half of these words but I noticed Inscryption, so you got me.
What are flakes and what does it mean to be reproducible?
Nix is a functional programming language / package manager, which allows you to build software reproducible.
For example, one developer has version 1.1 of a dependency installed and a second developer has version 1.2 of the same dependency installed. Both build the software from source and get a different result.
This can lead to “but it works on my machine” bugs. Nix mitigates this and ensures that all devs have the exact same versions and the build process produces the same output.
In theory these kind of bugs can now only happen because of hardware fault.
For game piracy this should streamline the installation process. You can just run one command and the game works and you don’t have to tinker around to find out why it does not work for you.
That’s a great idea, I’d absolutely love it myself. Something like adding a flake input and it giving you an overlay with reproducible packages for a lot of games, I suppose. Not sure about feasibility but it sure sounds enticing!
Your average user probably wouldn’t be too thrilled about it, but I’m sure Nix nerds would be all over it lol.
This idea is brilliant! How hard would you say swapping from using apt to learning and swapping to nix be? This is a serious question.
You don’t need to abandon your distro’s package manager to use Nix, so you can adopt it as much or as little as you like.
