NixOS is a Linux distribution based on the Nix package manager. It focuses on providing a reproducible and portable system configuration in the form of nix files that declare the desired state of the system.
Since the system uses Nix for all its packages, it ends up not being FHS compliant. For the most part this is not an issue, but it can become a problem when trying to compile and dynamically link binaries on the system. Overall, any dynamically linked binary must be patched to run on NixOS, otherwise it just can’t be executed.
I tried to use NixOS in the past, but I ditched it due to its complexity and lack of documentation. When using NixOS things usually work, but when they don’t work it’s quite a nightmare to debug and find help.
That’s my overall sentiment towards NixOS: it’s amazing, solves a ton of problems and I really want to use it; but I just can’t. The happy path is really happy and everything works very well, but anything that deviates from that is very painful to debug and get to work properly. I may give it another shot when I graduate and get to use my personal laptop for just what I want, but until then, I’m happy with Fedora.
References
NixOS is NOT for Beginners
NixOS is Mindblowing
NixOS: Everything Everywhere All At Once
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NixOS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
https://github.com/hlissner/dotfiles?tab=readme-ov-file#frequently-asked-questions