Yes, I know it’s a mess and that things are all over the place, even I have trouble looking through it sometimes, but in all honesty, it works, and I currently don’t have enough time to start from scratch.
I’m using NixOS to automate and install the config I attached up top on multiple different devices, around 140 laptops. It’s for a school project where we give out computers to those in need. It’s in French, considering I’m in a French province (Quebec), so I had to simplify it the most I could. Honestly, it could use a lot of work, but for now, it seems alright.
I’m rather new to NixOS, and I wanted to ask a few things:
GUI Package Management: Is there any way to install packages without using commands?
Config Review: Could anyone take a look and tell me what to improve, simplify, or add on?
User Management: I need to set up something that could simplify changing the user/password on each laptop I install the config on.
Desktop Environment: The UI could use a lot of work.
I don’t mind getting flamed, because with this config I really do deserve to get flamed, but if anyone could provide some guidance or point me in the right direction, it would really be amazing.
you should watch this talk - very relevant to your situation. the speaker discusses flatpak as a solution to your problem. i think it can help you out.
i looked over your config and don’t see anything specifically terrible. in fact for someone new to nixos i think this is pretty good
i think you might need to include more details on users - what do you want to accomplish here?
most users open their laptop and go straight for the web browser. did you have any specific requirements which make you think the ui isn’t good?
please don’t hesitate to ask more questions, this sounds like a really good project! i would love to hear updates on the future.
Great work overall—especially considering I’m just running this on my own single-machine setup, while you’ve already got it handling batch NixOS deployments across hundreds of devices.
A few small suggestions for improvement:
1.You might want to try swapping in nix-flatpak for the current Flatpak setup. It lets you define Flatpak remotes and install essential apps right in your config, and you could replace those web-link shortcuts with actual local desktop entries.
2.The current formatting style feels a bit inconsistent—honestly, it has that telltale AI-generated vibe. To make long-term maintenance easier, consider adding a treefmt to keep things uniform.
3.It’d be helpful to include the flake.lock file in the repo too. Even on stable NixOS, subtle reproducibility issues can pop up. Locking it down ensures users are always running the exact versions you’ve tested.
