NixOS has the potential to do really well here. The Nix language has a rich enough type system to generate GUI forms for every field, and there are several projects being worked on that allow editing NixOS options from a GUI. They’re still very janky, but it’s definitely possible to get to a point where a layperson could operate them without breaking their system.
Nix is definitely where I’d bet on good GUI development, if I had to choose. I’ve had my own issues with NixOS in the past, primarily due to me simply not being able to fully grasp some of the language for configs, but I’d definitely assume that GUI editing would be much easier due to the more predictable nature of the config files.
It’s whole deal is “declarative” system configuration. Essentially, it means if your config file is identical to someone else’s, your systems will have identical software/dependencies, and everything should, in theory, run the same, generally speaking.
So for instance, to install a package, instead of running sudo apt install nameofpackage, I would just edit my NixOS config file to have the line pkgs.nameofpackage in it, run a command to “rebuild” my system using sudo nixos-rebuild switch, and it would automatically be installed.
That’s not the whole of it of course, but that’s just a general overview. It’s really good for if you’re running multiple systems that need the same software, because all you need to do is copy the config file over, run sudo nixos-rebuild switch, and the systems now have identical software.
Oh yeah, and you can also easily rollback. If you break anything, you can, while starting to boot NixOS, just select the previous configuration, start your system, and any changes you’d made to software/settings will just be undone. It’s great for troubleshooting.
AFAIK NixOS also has the largest number of supported packages out of any distro.
NixOS has the potential to do really well here. The Nix language has a rich enough type system to generate GUI forms for every field, and there are several projects being worked on that allow editing NixOS options from a GUI. They’re still very janky, but it’s definitely possible to get to a point where a layperson could operate them without breaking their system.
Nix is definitely where I’d bet on good GUI development, if I had to choose. I’ve had my own issues with NixOS in the past, primarily due to me simply not being able to fully grasp some of the language for configs, but I’d definitely assume that GUI editing would be much easier due to the more predictable nature of the config files.
What’s the deal with NixOS? I’ve never tried it
It’s whole deal is “declarative” system configuration. Essentially, it means if your config file is identical to someone else’s, your systems will have identical software/dependencies, and everything should, in theory, run the same, generally speaking.
So for instance, to install a package, instead of running
sudo apt install nameofpackage, I would just edit my NixOS config file to have the linepkgs.nameofpackagein it, run a command to “rebuild” my system usingsudo nixos-rebuild switch, and it would automatically be installed.That’s not the whole of it of course, but that’s just a general overview. It’s really good for if you’re running multiple systems that need the same software, because all you need to do is copy the config file over, run
sudo nixos-rebuild switch, and the systems now have identical software.Oh yeah, and you can also easily rollback. If you break anything, you can, while starting to boot NixOS, just select the previous configuration, start your system, and any changes you’d made to software/settings will just be undone. It’s great for troubleshooting.
AFAIK NixOS also has the largest number of supported packages out of any distro.