{"slug": "nixbsd", "name": "NixBSD", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.207, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-01", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "official_url": "https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["NixBSD"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 761246336, "item_id": 47577896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47577896", "by": "craftkiller", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve", "excerpt": "Well it looks like we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve (and presumably Sylve): https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Proxmox to FreeBSD and Sylve in Our Office Lab"}, {"id": 743458512, "item_id": 46466157, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466157", "by": "yjftsjthsd-h", "date": "2026-01-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "excerpt": "> Talking about NixOS, does anybody know of a similar concept in the BSD world (preferably FreeBSD)? Well, there's https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd :)", "context": "", "use_case": "Nix-style system on BSD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeBSD: Home NAS, part 1 \u2013 configuring ZFS mirror (RAID1)"}, {"id": 737733537, "item_id": 46108346, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108346", "by": "Ericson2314", "date": "2025-12-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I hope that someday that https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd will be upstreamed into NixOS", "excerpt": "I hope that someday that https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd will be upstreamed into NixOS, and it will allow much easier switching between Linux and FreeBSD.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["nix-style system on bsd"], "compared": [{"slug": "nixos", "name": "NixOS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nix", "name": "Nix", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "freebsd", "name": "FreeBSD", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50274251", "title": "AlpineBSD", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48315980", "title": "Why Gentoo?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47553910", "title": "From Proxmox to FreeBSD and Sylve in Our Office Lab", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46462108", "title": "FreeBSD: Home NAS, part 1 \u2013 configuring ZFS mirror (RAID1)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100892", "title": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804424304, "item_id": 50276519, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50276519", "by": "craftkiller", "date": "2026-10-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "One thing I'm cautiously watching is NixBSD", "excerpt": "One thing I'm cautiously watching is NixBSD. With nix you can trivially compile all your software from source and modify it (both of which I do on the Linux-based NixOS). So I think that would cover the main selling point of Gentoo, though naturally it adds the Nix layer that you may either love or hate. The only reason I haven't dived into it yet is my FreeBSD machines are all foundational parts of my infrastructure", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AlpineBSD"}, {"id": 773100866, "item_id": 48318804, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48318804", "by": "0x69420", "date": "2026-05-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "nixbsd similarly exists (nix deeply integrated into freebsd)", "excerpt": "nixos is already, from a certain perspective, an exotic take on gentoo. take away cache.nixos.org and it becomes a source-based distro. it's not even too out-of-the-question to do traditionally gentoo stuff like globally set -funroll-loops -O3 and rebuild your whole system, but the operational benefit of staying standard is getting to use binary caches since reproducibility lets them substitute transparently for loca", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Gentoo?"}, {"id": 761246336, "item_id": 47577896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47577896", "by": "craftkiller", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve", "excerpt": "Well it looks like we might soon be able to have the benefits of NixOS while also having bhyve (and presumably Sylve): https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Proxmox to FreeBSD and Sylve in Our Office Lab"}, {"id": 743458512, "item_id": 46466157, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466157", "by": "yjftsjthsd-h", "date": "2026-01-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd", "excerpt": "> Talking about NixOS, does anybody know of a similar concept in the BSD world (preferably FreeBSD)? Well, there's https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd :)", "context": "", "use_case": "Nix-style system on BSD", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeBSD: Home NAS, part 1 \u2013 configuring ZFS mirror (RAID1)"}, {"id": 737733537, "item_id": 46108346, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46108346", "by": "Ericson2314", "date": "2025-12-01", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I hope that someday that https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd will be upstreamed into NixOS", "excerpt": "I hope that someday that https://github.com/nixos-bsd/nixbsd will be upstreamed into NixOS, and it will allow much easier switching between Linux and FreeBSD.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}