I always thought Vim/Nvim already had a built-in package manager, git clone inside ~/.vim/pack/*/start, am I missing anything by not using a "real" package manager?
I always thought Vim/Nvim already had a built-in package manager, git clone inside ~/.vim/pack/*/start, am I missing anything by not using a "real" package manager?
> I always thought Vim/Nvim already had a built-in package manager
They do; I used minpac [1] back in the day with Vim. And now Neovim has vim.pack.
Every so often, a movement to create Vim and Neovim configurations with zero (or minimal) 3rd party plugins becomes popular. This means no lazyvim as the package manager.
The lazyvim package manager has all the bells and whistles, especially lazy loading plugins, which reduces Neovim's startup time if you have dozens of plugins installed. My LazyVim [2] configuration has 35 plugins total but only 6 load at startup; startup time: 76ms. Plugins you don't use often aren't loaded unless necessary.
[1]: http://vimcasts.org/episodes/minpac/
[2]: https://www.lazyvim.org
I imagine you are left with manual dependencies, manual updates, and possibly without lazy loading or portable configuration. That stuff is not strictly necessary and may be easy to roll your own if you're very into it, but it's comfortable to have a standard.
Not really. That’s what I do.