Software development today has reached unprecedented complexity. Development teams operate across multiple OS, chip architectures, and cloud environments, each presenting unique dependency issues and version conflicts. Reproducible code execution across these platforms has posed a significant challenge, exacerbated by rising worries regarding software supply chain security.
Nix serves as a robust open-source package manager, facilitating software builds within controlled, declarative environments where dependencies are clearly defined and reproducible. Its functional methodology sets a benchmark for reproducible builds, though it can be challenging to master and implement.
Flox enhances Nix by emphasizing improved supply chain security and providing abstractions that simplify the developer experience.
Michael Stahnke, the VP of Engineering at Flox with prior experience at companies like Caterpillar, Puppet, and CircleCI, joins the podcast alongside Kevin Ball to discuss Flox, its integration with Nix, the role of reproducibility in software security, the notion of “secure by construction,” the impact of deterministic environments on both AI and human development, and other related topics.
(Note: This episode is sponsored by Flox.)
Kevin Ball, also known as KBall, serves as the vice president of engineering at Mento and works as an independent coach for engineers and engineering leaders. He co-founded and was CTO for two enterprises, founded the San Diego JavaScript meetup, and coordinates the AI inaction discussion group via Latent Space.
[View the episode’s transcript here.](http://softwareengineeringdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SED1889-Flox.txt)