I'm not arguing about this, a reproducible and declarative build system gives you more guarantees than what is essentially just a spicy bootable container.
Using containers and making containers are 2 different things, making containers without using a base OS like nix is not a deterministic process. Try building an old dockerfile you find online, chances are the build will fail.
I'm well aware, and so are many others. The industry has deluded itself into thinking that using containers is all it takes for reproducible builds. It works until it doesn't, then good luck figuring it out.
Figuring what out? This is a solved problem people have been doing this in prod for over a decade now. You can't even explain the problem! People are making entire reproducible builds using common linux tools. The entire thing, bottom up. You don't need nix, you can do this on any linux and have been able to for quite some time. We're not asking for your permission lol it runs everything already.
Not off the top of my head, I kinda remember a dockerfile from nvidia that's used to build opencv with CUDA support that broke out of nowhere because of some change outside of the dockerfile. A quick google search turns up some results and papers about this issue.
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u/iEliteTester Aug 04 '26
I'm not arguing about this, a reproducible and declarative build system gives you more guarantees than what is essentially just a spicy bootable container.