I could never get into nix on Mac os. Maybe it's a different thing if you use nixOS but I'm not willing to make that jump.
It seems the clear barrier to entry to nix is UX and to an extent the custom language they use. Maybe this problem can be solved with LLMs. We need an LLM fine tuned to write nix language.
The language itself isn't as challenging as the overall structure of NixOS/nixpkgs itself. It's a monolithic source-tree of interdependent "derivations". The entire notion of "package" has been thrown halfway out the window. There is logic and reason to the madness, but it's really difficult to find your bearings.
So the barrier to nix is... nix? No, the language is not the problem. It is not a particularly difficult language at all. There are plenty of actual problems to address, but the language isn't the issue.
It seems the clear barrier to entry to nix is UX and to an extent the custom language they use. Maybe this problem can be solved with LLMs. We need an LLM fine tuned to write nix language.