Tell macOS users how to open the terminal

[roberth]

Introduce your stance

I'm a Nixer first, and I am perpetually new to macOS, as I generally only use it over ssh, when I have to. That makes launching the Terminal a challenge for me. It would be nice to help out with this.

I have to acknowledge that macOS users who don't know how to run the Terminal app is not our target audience, but I'm not a macOS user. I suspect that some other community members fit this profile, but perhaps not all that many.

Describe the issue

I'd suggest adding something like this to the download page

- Open Finder
- Click the search icon
- Type Terminal
- Open it or drag it to the dock first

or something that's easier.

Page links

https://nixos.org/download#nix-install-macos

Additional context

[camelpunch]

Cmd-space Terminal?

[orellazri]

To be honest I don't think that necessary. Users who plan to use Nix on MacOS should know how to open the terminal (like any other app). It's not Nix's responsibility to explain that.

[roberth]

I might be a rare species of user that learns macOS only because of Nix, yet I believe there may be others of my kind.

If not for professional reasons - having to support macOS (poor souls), they might have just switched to it because of fast hardware, and installing Nix is the first thing they do on the platform.

[brnl]

I'm also very sure the first thing a user would do is press Cmd+Space and type "terminal" or open a browser tab/window and type "open terminal on mac" to have the answer in the (preview of the) first hit.

Maybe link to Apple's Terminal User Guide, if you wish. https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/welcome/mac

[roberth]

I didn't know about Cmd+Space, because I was a Linux user who had to learn the macOS UI for the first time, for work reasons.

If you don't want to help Linux users by spending like 4 words, that seems unfortunate.

[brnl]

Fair point, there's enough room on the page. Maybe something like this?

Multi-user installation

Install Nix via the recommended multi-user installation. Open the terminal (press Cmd+Space and type 'Terminal') and run:

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install)

We believe we have ironed out how to cleanly support the read-only root on modern macOS. Please consult the manual on details what the installation script does.

[roberth]

Yeah, that's good. I think we can even recover some brevity.

I do agree with the earlier idea that we can assume some level of familiarity:

• with GUI instructions, such as "+" syntax
• basic terminal/shell skill level, e.g. no need to say "and hit enter"

My suggestion would be:

Multi-user installation Install Nix via the recommended multi-user installation. Run in the terminal ([Cmd]+[Space] and type Terminal):

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install)

We [...]

[clemens-tolboom]

I am a MacOS user for long so know [Cmd]-[Space] but I ran the script as sudo ... hence my PR #1116

I totally agree to add [Cmd]-[Space] as some of my co-worker are new to MacOS