In reply to @ma27:nicht-so.sexy
but if there's going to be an infra-specific Hydra: are people still interested in changes like the "search failed builds by maintainer" thing? I have an idea how to do it with a far smaller migration path, but I'll need some time for that eventually and given how things develop in here, I'm not sure if it's worth it.

In reply to @delroth:delroth.net
well it's not like those changes would have made sense outside of hydra.nixos.org anyway?

In reply to @tomberek:matrix.org
The state of hydra could use improvement. And we need something to fill the need. There are options, such as rejuvenating the maintenance effort, deprecate and write major version changes, rewrite, adopt and improve a similar existing Nix-based CI. Sounds like a nice long-term project that could use funding? Or prioritization? Maintainers to do work that have not yet naturally materialized.

Or a radical idea: Nix is special in that it can coexist on other distros and with other package managers.... perhaps it can coexist with any CI solution.

Not so radical of an idea. There has been plenty of looking into using off the shelf CI systems:

• Over in nix-community we have a buildbot instance.
• TVL runs on buildkite (proprietary cloud, so out of the question for Nix).

All existing FOSS solutions I looked into scaled poorly and/or didn't have support for dynamic job matrices. I couldn't even use the buildbot for the emacs overlay (~60k packages) because of scaling issues.
There is also the aspect of discoverability & searching where a purpose built system will always outperform some generic thing.
For all it's problems Hydra actually has a fair bit to like. My conclusion after looking into the landscape was that we need a purpose built CI, but I also think we can get away with something radically simpler than Hydra.

In reply to @ronef:matrix.org
Anybody here interested to have a deeper conversation on fundraising/funding for the project/community?

In reply to @ronef:matrix.org
(Side FYI) I'm going to start being underwater for the next two weeks organizing/running NixCon in North America with the team so sorry if I slowly become slower to engage/respond going into March 14 - 17
It seems like it's going to be a large gathering and I am hopeful we will be doing lots of Nix advocacy to a new continent, with a lot of New to Nix folks :)
If anyone is interested to help/give thoughts just ping me!

Apologies, I'm on a flight.
Will provide some updates async:

1. NixCon is rolling in one week! We have over 310 folks signed up! Though I have less confidence in the exact number and therefore can range anywhere honestly. The team has been burning the candle on both ends the past few weeks to try and prepare for that large of a crowd.
2. Preparing a talk for NixCon on Nix State of the Union, if anyone here plans to make it please let me know. In Darmstadt I incorporated a new format where a bunch of community leads join in to talk about their areas and I personally found that invaluable. If you'll be there I'd love for you to join in. Also, if you have any topics you'd like to add to the deck I'd appreciate it as well! (I'll share the deck later this weekend but feel free to send topics regardless)
3. Once we get past NixCon I'll schedule time for us to dive into the fundraising topic I mentioned.
4. If there's anything else, ping me!!

Apologies, I'm on a flight.
Will provide some updates async:

1. NixCon is rolling in one week! We have over 310 folks signed up! Though I have less confidence in the exact number and therefore can range anywhere honestly. The team has been burning the candle on both ends the past few weeks to try and prepare for that large of a crowd.
2. Preparing a talk for NixCon on Nix State of the Union, if anyone here plans to make it please let me know. In Darmstadt I incorporated a new format where a bunch of community leads join in to talk about their areas and I personally found that invaluable. If you'll be there I'd love for you to join in. Also, if you have any topics you'd like to add to the deck I'd appreciate it as well! (I'll share the deck later this weekend but feel free to send topics regardless)
3. Once we get past NixCon I'll schedule time for us to dive into the fundraising topic I mentioned.
4. If there's anything else, ping me!!
5. (Forgot to add this one) We are rolling out a survey at NixCon so if you have any ideas for questions to add let me know. I believe it's a unique opportunity to get some responses from a different persona.