Introduction

These are my notes I tok while learning about Nix and NixOS. They are endorsed by no one, not even myself.

My approach when learning something is to explain it very basically, beginning with basic principles and working up to more complex topics without leaving any gaps, trying to state all but the most obvious of assumptions. In other words, a good way to learn is to (pretend to) explain something to a child, hence the title of these notes - "ELI5" stands for "Explain like I'm 5".

I don't quite take this literally. For example, I may not define "software" the way if might if I were literally talking to a 5-year-old. Still, I like to learn by explaining these very thoroughly and methodically.

Without further ado, then - what is Nix?