Hate fighting your distro? You’re not alone.
I broke three Ubuntu installs last year. Same story each time: apt update, shower of red errors, Sunday gone.
Turns out 73 % of Linux users now deal with dependency hell on the “stable” distros. So I went shopping. Three setups later, here’s the honest truth about Guix, NixOS, and PureOS.
The usual way hurts
APT/DNF are good—until they aren’t.
- 30 % of devs lose hours each week to busted updates.
- 43 % of admins skip complex stacks to avoid roll-back nightmares.
- Only 37 % trust their system will boot after a patch.
In short: apt-get install “cross your fingers”.
Enter the three underdogs
Guix: the Lego OS
Imagine your entire machine as a single text file.
(use-service-modules networking ssh)
(use-package-modules gnu maths)
(operating-system
(host-name "lenny")
(timezone "Europe/Berlin")
(packages (cons* vim bc %base-packages)))You hit guix system reconfigure and it either works or rolls back in three seconds. No root. No cruft. That’s it.
Downside? Fancy some Wi-Fi firmware? Compile sucks you into the Guile Scheme rabbit hole.
NixOS: it never breaks
In Nix land you describe the machine, not babysit it.
{ pkgs, ... }: {
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ nvim zellij ];
services.postgresql.enable = true;
services.postgresql.package = pkgs.postgresql_15;
}One command later your database is live. Change your mind? Drop postgresql from the file and nixos-rebuild switch. Takes seven seconds, never leaves garbage behind.
I pushed that setup to a git repo. CI pulled the same file and ran tests 2 000 miles away with zero drift. That felt like magic.
PureOS: privacy toaster
Everything inside is open source. No binary blob, no secret dial-home chip. Boot it on a Librem 14 and your MAC address is spoofed by default. Want Netflix? Forget it. Want Google Drive? Grab Flatpak, but you’ll feel dirty.
It’s Debian underneath, so most .deb files work. Just don’t expect smooth Steam gaming.
Which one for you?
| Need | Pick |
|---|---|
| Total control over every byte | Guix |
| CI/server that never flakes | NixOS |
| RMS-grade purity | PureOS |
My daily driver? I flashed NixOS on the work laptop and Guix on the play rig. PureOS lives on a thumb-drive for travel—hotel Wi-Fi can’t sniff what it doesn’t understand.
Frequently asked flamewar questions
- Can I install Spotify? Yes. Flatpak or Spotify package on Nix. Guix ships an open-source wrapper.
- Learning curve? Nix docs > Guix docs right now. PureOS feels like normal Debian.
- Safe for grandma? PureOS, for email and photos. The others want a curious mind.
Bottom line: Linux isn’t a one-size t-shirt anymore. Pick the distro that lets you own the screen, not the other way around.
