I Switched to Minimal NixOS (Framework Desktop)

I switched my Framework desktop to a minimal NixOS install, and I'm really enjoying it. This video is about my current setup — and about something that surprised me: how little you actually need from a computer. Emails, browser, YouTube, Google Docs — once those are covered, the amount of bloat on macOS and Windows starts to look ridiculous. I followed a NixOS install guide on YouTube (shout-out to Tony — his distro install videos make the whole thing super easy and friendly) and for someone who likes computers and likes to code, it was life-changing. Ubuntu is the gateway drug of Linux distros, but I'd done that before and wanted to go more minimal. I considered Arch, but the rolling-release breakage scared me off. NixOS won me over with Nix files: instead of installing Go, Rust, or JavaScript globally, I can scope a dev environment to a specific directory and code. I might do a full setup tour in a future video to show how minimal it is and how well everything runs without any extra fluff. The only thing I'm missing is a file manager for browsing and moving files around — though cp and mv are honestly good enough. And yes, I'm running a tiling window manager, no regular pop-up windows. If you're a software engineer who's mostly on Mac because it's easy to get up and running, I challenge you to try a Linux distro. You might be surprised too. Chapters 0:00 — Intro: my current computer setup 0:24 — Switched to minimal NixOS 0:30 — Surprising how little you actually need 0:52 — The bloat on macOS and Windows 1:08 — A challenge to software engineers 1:46 — Framework desktop: everything just worked 2:02 — Shout-out: Tony's Linux install guides 2:43 — Ubuntu is the gateway drug 2:52 — Why not Arch Linux 3:03 — Why NixOS: Nix files, per-directory environments 3:34 — Maybe a setup tour in the future 3:55 — The one thing missing: a file manager 4:19 — Tiling window manager life Special thanks to Tony:    / @tony-btw   NixOS Install:    • How to Install NixOS From Scratch (2026 Ed...