This blog assumes that you are familiar with Socionics. Also I am biased towards NixOS and my writing might seem Aristocratic. And I understand that Correlation doesn’t mean causation.

So I tried to relate linux users’ preference of linux distro and correlation with their sociotype. It is important to note that its all theoretical with no practical survey/evidence. It’s just what I feel like, and I am Fi creative, so I will just fit all the possibilities I observed (Ne base) into what feels right (Fi creative), with 1D Ti. You have been warned !

Imperative Vs Declarative Distros

So I will try be as objective as possible. First, lets see what the heading means :

Imperative programming is about how a program works while Declarative programming is about what a program does.

random article on medium

So, its NixOS (declarative) vs all other acknowledgeable Linux distros (imperative).

My hypothesis is that Te Valuers (Gamma and Delta Quadras) are into declarative distros, while Ti Valuers (Alpha and Beta Quadras) are into imperative distros. How?

In Socionics, Te is about “what works” while Ti is about “how to do?”. You might argue that Ti is about “systems” and NixOS configs look very “systematic”. To that I would answer that NixOS configs look very “simple system”, and that is what Ti subduers want, we dont want to use Ti !

Some users unlike me find NixOS hard, for example this reddit post, the user types :

I just struggle to get what is going on lower level.

 I sort of feel like I kind of get it but I know I am missing something conceptual.

https://www.reddit.com/user/ryanisab/

Clearly he is missing his Ti usage upon NixOS. “Lower Level” ? He is unable to understand the complete system, and that bugs him. “Concept”? Let me remind you Ti and Te keywords as stated in Wikisocion :

Ti Introverted Logic: structure, analysis, coherence, consistency, cogency, accordance, match, commensurability, understanding, order, or the lack of thereof

Te Extraverted Logic: efficiency, method, mechanism, knowledge, work, reason in motion, direction of activity into its most logical course of action, “logic of actions”, utilitarianism, expediency, benefit.

Now another correlation could be the Reinin Declarative/Asking Dichotomy :

This is rather obvious. Declaring individual might prefer declarative distro, while Asking individual might prefer doing a task in “dialogues” with the terminal as wikisocion states “tendency to dialogue” for them.

Another Correlation could be Ne/Ni valuers ; for that first let me remind you of the keywords:

Ne Extraverted Intuition: potential, permutation, isomorphism, semblance, essence, uncertainty, the unknown, opening up new “windows” and bringing up new possibilities in conversation, seeing opportunities, chance, being the first, refreshing informational suddenness, diversity of interests and involvements.

Ni Introverted Intuition: development over time, historicity, cause and effect, consequences, repetition, archetypal themes and examples, looking for causes in history or the past, past-future forecasting of event dynamics, rhythm, delay or act-now, past-turned imagination.

• “isomorphism” : isn’t the NixOS config just one big set of one on one correlation?

• “permutation” : isn’t NixOS just more “permutated” branch of linux?

• “semblance: : isn’t the NixOS config just a cheap trick to get a semblance of our OS.

• “development over time” : not something a declarative user would want. Ex: a NixOS user enjoys reproducibility due to declarative nature which is the opposite of development over time.

• “cause and effect” : an imperative user is concerned with “what broke my system?” and “will it break my system?”; however a declarative distro user doesn’t want to be concerned with those shit and is not afraid to try system-breaking “potentials” due to the declarative nature of the distro, they can rollback anytime.

• “past-turned imagination” : most imperative users can’t switch to NixOS because they imagine the ways and directories as it were in there past distro. Ex : Matt from The Linux Cast

Ne valuers are Alpha and Delta Quadras while Ni valuers are Beta and Gamma Quadras.

So lets guess the sociotype of ?

1. Imperative fanboy : Alpha Asking :- ILE & LII
2. Declarative Fanboy : Delta Declarative :- EII & IEE

I would say it is reasonable.