4.1 Overview

What is a devbox and why do I need it?

A devbox is an environment that contains your indivisual toolstack and settings. In fact it does not to be only one environment. You can break it down in fine grained, purpose oriented, environments e.g. one for your cloud stack (helm, kubectl, etc.) and another one with focus on python.

Technically it works similar to a package manager but without conflicting with operating level packages that were managed by tools like apt or dnf.

🎉 Pros:

[✅] Try new tools without polluting your laptop
[✅] Devbox can create isolated environments right on your laptop, without an extra-layer of virtualization slowing your file system or every command.
[✅] No more conflicting versions
[✅] Take your environment with you

🚨 Cons:

[🔍️] Nix installation requires root to run the daemon (in a multiuser environment)
[🔍️] More involved installation (creation of nixbld* users, installing a systemd unit, …
[🔍️] Harder to uninstall