I’m just getting started with Nix, as it seems more mature than Guix. The argument the article makes is that using a real language (Guile Scheme) over a proprietary DSL (Nix Language) is a better proposition. Can anyone offer any anecdata on that, having used both or either? Does Nix’s inertia overcome its DSL which, while I find a bit ugly, doesn’t strike me as hard to work with?

A type alias binds a new name to a type. All of the type’s methods are available through the new name.

How is such an obscure language - with associated difficulty in finding talented engineers - ever going to be a better choice than a more mainstream language, which probably has many of the same features?