This is why I think we're going to see some new kernels being adopted soon. I think Asterinas looks neat, and leveraging NixOS was a very smart move IMO.
67 karma · joined June 3, 2020
Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most stuff will require work because it was designed around systemd.
Now NixOS on the other hand already has an abundance of packages and real adoption. Most setups can probably migrate to nix today with a backup of /home and a competent LLM agent, and things "will just work". I did this recently!
Add to that the NixOS ecosystem where things are fairly simple to setup declaratively and "it just works": disko for partitions, sops-nix for secrets, restic for cloud backups, microvm for light vm's, NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments (colmena or nixops4 for interconnected nodes even). You can do complex things, and your rig or network could explode and it won't matter cause you can rebuild and deploy to a new/repaired machine in minutes. Your backups could explode and all you'd lose is state.
All that is easy to have in Nix today - I know cause I literally just switched and did most of it with like 0 experience. I migrated my fairly complex setup 1 to 1 and gained a ton of useful stuff in Nix, whereas with Guix it wasn't even possible (I would have to trim or package / translate tons of stuff), nor would it have been easy, and all the cool stuff I gained with nix is either difficult or non-existent on guix, let alone mature.
Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most stuff will require work because it was designed around systemd.
Now NixOS on the other hand already has an abundance of packages and real adoption. Most setups can probably migrate to nix today with a backup of /home and a competent LLM agent, and things "will just work". I did this recently!
Add to that the NixOS ecosystem where things are fairly simple to setup declaratively and "it just works": disko for partitions, sops-nix for secrets, restic for cloud backups, microvm for light vm's, NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments (colmena or nixops4 for interconnected nodes even). You can do complex things, and your rig or network could explode and it won't matter cause you can rebuild and deploy to a new/repaired machine in minutes. Your backups could explode and all you'd lose is state.
All that is easy to have in Nix today - I know cause I literally just switched and did most of it with like 0 experience. I migrated my fairly complex setup 1 to 1 and gained a ton of useful stuff in Nix, whereas with Guix it wasn't even possible (I would have to trim or package / translate tons of stuff), nor would it have been easy, and all the cool stuff I gained with nix is either difficult or non-existent on guix, let alone mature.
Comments like the one above do not belong here at all, it's childish, it brings absolutely 0 value to readers, and it's against the guidelines because it degrades the quality of HN for everyone.
I think this does a good job too: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50284837
I would also recommend The People's Forum / The Socialist Program's recent class on Lenin: https://m.soundcloud.com/thesocialistprogram/sets/lenin-and-...
A better question to ask is what will happen when a larger portion of the profit that these workers created now flows back into their communities?
Workers spend their money at family run business, and small to medium size businesses in their community and contribute to the local economy. The economic implications of this effort are not just beneficial for the 150,000 UAW workers but their communities and local economies as well.
In contrast the board members who are reaping those profits are not spending money in those communities. Even if they theoretically lived in the same communities and frequented the same businesses they would not buy anywhere close to the same quantity of goods and services that the 150,000 uaw workers would with those same profits.
This is peak western propaganda.
We literally have a massive naval presence conducting the world's largest military exercises off their coast, practicing invading them in the South China Sea and ROK - a state that wouldn't exist had we not invaded china's ally the DPRK, leveling their cities, killing 1/5 the population, installing a dictator, and maintaining full operational control of their military in the event that we decide to invade them again or invade China.
On top of that we've got tons of strategic military installations surrounding them, we even spent trillions and sent our people to die for more strategic advantage in Afghanistan. The US has shown that we're the real aggressors time and time again with the media's constant hostile rhetoric, and the very real military conquests we've conducted around the world, killing millions, overthrowing or assassinating democratically elected leaders, and installing dictators in countless nations across the globe.
Swap the names for 10 seconds, substitute Korea for Mexico, China has fleets in the Caribbean and bases in Canada, they conduct the world's largest exercise in the gulf practicing how to war with and invade the US, they've successfully toppled countless governments and popular uprisings. And now they're saying your weather balloon is a spy balloon and your country's military is devoted to war with them.
Look at the historical context, and you'll realize how hypocritical and obvious the US's hostility, fear mongering, and propaganda towards China is. It's seriously the same rinse and repeat recipe we've used for every one of our thinly veiled imperialist conquests.
The belief is that new means of production should be embraced, owned, and operated by workers to benefit the many and not just the few exploitative capitalists (which are those who own means of production).
Instead of exploiting lay-offs and long shifts, and disregarding safety to save the capitalist money, the factory would instead be built and operated for the benefit of workers and society, prioritizing safety and sharing shorter shifts among a larger workforce to preserve jobs.
From a socialist/communist perspective machine taxes and UBI are like cheap bribes to avoid the issue and preserve the exploitative system in place. The luddites probably would have felt the same had they been offered a pity sum or machine tax from factory owners to "offset" their condition.
Now a year later, I'm trying for a new job again and I hardly hear from recruiters, and I actually have to apply for jobs. It's a huge contrast from this time last year and it makes me regret waiting.
Side Note: Having seen other coworkers move on and knowing what I know now, I've realized I was more than ready to get a new job a year ago, I just lacked the confidence to keep trying. Hopefully this serves to motivate others paralyzed by imposter syndrome.