A next-generation package manager called Nix provides a simple distribution-independent method for deploying a binary or source package on different flavours of Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora, and Red Hat. Even better, Nix does not interfere with existing package managers
Full story »
aboutblank
15 years 13 weeks 1 hour 26 min ago
Functional Package Management
I recently learned of the Nix package management system. Some people may baulk at the idea of yet another package management system for GNU/Linux distributions. I think that the Nix solution is a superior solution to the problem of managing software packages compared to the existing solutions that I am aware of.
I just want to say that people who lack proper understanding of the functional programming paradigm are completely unqualified to critique Nix and compare it to the other solutions. Functional programming is the key to understanding why Nix has a greater potential as a package management system compared to stateful packaging systems.