front page: Who is Nix for? #872
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Thanks for this PR! This audience focus is something that has been in my mind for a few weeks now, and I wrote in one of the comments my main assumption of what the two current types of audience Nix has. While I'd like to eventually be able to cover at least both kinds of audience, I agree that focusing on software developers is a good initial focus.
btw - you may want to update the link to the 2022 nix survey, because it's pointing to something else I think. I found this link to be more helpful: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2022-nix-survey-results/18983
infinisil
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Closed all comments after re-thinking the phrasing. Thanks @DanielSidhion for the first feedback round. |
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Updated the links - there were typos in the commit message/PR description. |
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]: NixOS/nix#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
Co-authored-by: Daniel Sidhion <DanielSidhion@users.noreply.github.com>
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This is looking good to me!
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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. The marketing team is explicitly focusing
on software developers, and the documentation team was supposed to
align with that from the very beginning.
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. 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 yet
Projectsnor 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 and 2023 community surveys.