From 2ed8a224c9c29dd392eea5551e0731e324553b40 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Valentin Gagarin Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 23:35:57 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] front page: Who is Nix for? For at least two years there were ongoing debates about the target audience of the Nix ecosystem. Nix maintainers did not manage to converge on a statement [0]. The marketing team is explicitly focusing on software developers [1], and the documentation team was supposed to align with that from the very beginning [2]. What was missing so far was what we mean by "software developers". Arguably, it encompasses a particular mind set about how to deal with computers and enough time to learn things. And while for documentation it matters most *what* the software is doing rather than *who* it is made for (or by), the ecosystem is a community effort, and people matter [3]. So far, we haven't really identified the (eventual) boundaries of this community (at least I don't know of any serious attempt), which also plays into the definition of a target audience. Yet, in practice, not every contribution, not every question or comment is treated equally, and this has reasons in our implicit assumptions about who belongs. This is an attempt to draw such a boundary that is not arbitrary, and neither to narrow nor too wide. The goal is, as always, to help Nix beginners set realistic expectations for their journey. The list of occupations/interests who may benefit from Nix is based on the 2022 [4] and 2023 [5] community surveys. [0]: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/7156 [1]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-homepage/blob/76d42a052dce7917007b5553dd08ea2569d04bc7/community/teams/marketing.tt#L89 [2]: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2022-06-15-documentation-team-meeting-notes-1/20004 [3]: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/zurich-23-05-zhf-hackathon-and-workshop-report/29093#ux-workshop-21 [4]: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2022-nix-survey-results/18983 [5]: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nix-community-survey-2023-results/33124 --- source/contributing/how-to-contribute.md | 1 + source/index.md | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+) diff --git a/source/contributing/how-to-contribute.md b/source/contributing/how-to-contribute.md index c0c77a4bb..041fe9e5a 100644 --- a/source/contributing/how-to-contribute.md +++ b/source/contributing/how-to-contribute.md @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ +(how-to-contribute)= # How to contribute The Nix ecosystem is developed by many volunteers and a few paid developers, maintaining one of the largest open source software distributions in the world. diff --git a/source/index.md b/source/index.md index 9691d957b..a75d9a801 100644 --- a/source/index.md +++ b/source/index.md @@ -68,6 +68,28 @@ The following illustrate of what can be achieved with the Nix ecosystem: - Atomic upgrades and rollbacks. +## Who is Nix for? + +Nix is a tool for software developers. + +You don't have to be a professional and you don't need formal education in informatics to greatly benefit from Nix. +For our purposes here, you are a software developer if you manipulate character strings to make computers do exactly what you want. + +However, experience with complex software projects helps understanding why Nix is useful, knowing some informatics helps appreciating how it works, and either one is a good starting point to [help improve it](how-to-contribute). + +You probably won't want to go back to a world without Nix if you're a: + +- Full-stack or back-end developer +- Test engineer +- Embedded systems developer +- DevOps engineer +- System administrator +- Data scientist +- Natural scientist +- Student of a technical field +- Open source software enthusiast + + ```{toctree} :hidden: