Presenting
So you'd like to present Nix or NixOS to a group or organization?
Great, we have put together this page to help you get started!
We considered putting together a canned presentation, and maybe we still will but we think it's more compelling when an individual presents a message that they really own. Ideally, users will see your presentation and leave feeling excited to try NixOS.
Purpose
Begin by considering the purpose of your presentation:
- Make it personal to you
- Why do you want to give this presentation?
- Why is giving the presentation important?
Compelling components
Think about how you want to communicate the value or benefits of Nix:
- Telling a story
- Use the following needs to features framework:
- Situation that leads to a problem
- Implications of that problem, pain points
- How does Nix or NixOS take care of that problem
- Live demos are exciting and compelling, but also risky, so be sure to practice and have contingency plans!
Bonus idea: fold these ideas together into a single cohesive whole.
What to focus on
When brainstorming your presentation, consider the following questions:
- What's important about Nix to you?
- What makes you excited about Nix?
- What do you usually show others when showing them Nix?
- When showing others Nix, what gets them excited?
- What do they most like about Nix?
Answers to these questions could include:
- Reproducible Builds
- Managing Dependency Relationships
- Fearlessly making changes
- Constant time rollbacks
- Configuring from a single canonical location
- Being part of something big, early
- Building skills in Nix
- Learning basic semantics of system management on an as-needed basis
Live demos
The best live demos will be the unique ones you come up with yourself, but to get you started, we have a basic set of examples:
- Vignettes in the Examples on nixos.org.