Hi! Not unlike Flox, Nix-Community remains an independent project, “the community playground”, and keeps pioneering the CUDA and “hardware acceleration” CI efforts. I do not mean to spoil future announcements, but, right at this moment, the Nix-Community infrastructure team is doing some of the crucial work towards deploying Nixpkgs’ first GPU-enabled CI!
There’s an important point to be made, also relating to Nix-Community Cachix. NVIDIA’s current recognition of Flox, rather than the Foundation, is still less than what either of us (including, perhaps, NVIDIA itself) truly needs for long-term sustainability. This is, however, a remarkable step forward from the grey area of individual resolute people having to keep things cached and tested in spite of legal ambiguity. Surely, only the first step!
To sum up, I’d personally describe the Flox-NVIDIA deal as a political advancement: makes us more “legible”, palatable to sponsors; opens new communication channels. We’re more “mainstream” now, for better and for worse. Meantime, Nix-Community is effectively a reconnaissance mission.
Thank you Ron, and thank you everyone involved. I particularly appreciate that, in addition to relentless work, there’s also been a lot of compromise and risk involved. And thank you to Nix-Community, especially @zimbatm, @zowoq, and @Mic92.
EDIT: Expanded for more recognition for Nix-Community. All opinions are personal and do not represent other parties.