{"slug": "nixos-anywhere", "name": "nixos-anywhere", "category": "infra", "category_name": "Infrastructure and DevOps", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.532, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2026-01-31", "latest": "2026-09-25", "why": "it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere", "official_url": "https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["nixos-anywhere", "NixOS Anywhere"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797611414, "item_id": 49850713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850713", "by": "Sugimot0", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments", "excerpt": "I used to wonder this same question and weighed guix and nix quite a bit before moving to the nix camp. Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most", "context": "", "use_case": "deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 797611334, "item_id": 49850708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850708", "by": "Sugimot0", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments", "excerpt": "I used to wonder this same question and weighed guix and nix quite a bit before moving to the nix camp. Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most", "context": "", "use_case": "deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 760061216, "item_id": 47503826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47503826", "by": "klinch", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nixos-anywhere[0] on an almost weekly basis.", "excerpt": "Sounds cursed. But I'm not judging, given that I use nixos-anywhere[0] on an almost weekly basis. [0] https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere", "context": "", "use_case": "remote NixOS installs", "switched_from": "", "story": "curl > /dev/sda: How I made a Linux distro that runs wget | dd"}, {"id": 750268305, "item_id": 46891769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891769", "by": "Cyph0n", "date": "2026-02-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines", "excerpt": "It\u2019s fairly trivial to map your NixOS config into a VM image: https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-image-nixos-rebuild-build-image An alternative is to \u201cinfect\u201d a VM running in whatever cloud and convert it into a NixOS VM in-place: https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere In fact, it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines. You start off by booting into a live USB with SS", "context": "", "use_case": "installing NixOS remotely", "switched_from": "", "story": "Coding Agent VMs on NixOS with Microvm.nix"}, {"id": 749465026, "item_id": 46841564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46841564", "by": "c0balt", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For remote installations nixos-anywhere is great.", "excerpt": "I would strongly recommend sops-nix[0]. Pair this with ssh-to-age/ssh-to-gpg for the keys for each server. We are using this at $work for multiple servers, one notable advantages is that it works in teams (for multiple people) and git (and also gitops). For remote installations nixos-anywhere is great. deploy-rs or colemna is fine, nixos-rebuild with `--target-host` is also working well for us however. [0]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "remote NixOS installation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Guix System First Impressions as a Nix User"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["deployments", "remote nixos installs", "installing nixos remotely", "remote nixos installation"], "compared": [{"slug": "sops-nix", "name": "sops-nix", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "disko", "name": "disko", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nixos", "name": "NixOS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "colmena", "name": "colmena", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "deploy-rs", "name": "deploy-rs", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gnu-guix", "name": "GNU Guix", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "restic", "name": "restic", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49841563", "title": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500522", "title": "curl > /dev/sda: How I made a Linux distro that runs wget | dd", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46844410", "title": "Coding Agent VMs on NixOS with Microvm.nix", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46835612", "title": "Guix System First Impressions as a Nix User", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797611414, "item_id": 49850713, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850713", "by": "Sugimot0", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments", "excerpt": "I used to wonder this same question and weighed guix and nix quite a bit before moving to the nix camp. Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most", "context": "", "use_case": "deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 797611334, "item_id": 49850708, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850708", "by": "Sugimot0", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "NixOS anywhere or deploy-rs for deployments", "excerpt": "I used to wonder this same question and weighed guix and nix quite a bit before moving to the nix camp. Guix on paper really sounds ideal, it feels like a more compelling design, more first principles, it's all scheme, really exciting ideas under the hood. But design intent is not a substitute for the actual user experience. IRL it's too much hassle: weak package coverage, weak ecosystem, a steep learning curve, most", "context": "", "use_case": "deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch governments builds alternative for Microsoft based on NixOS"}, {"id": 760061216, "item_id": 47503826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47503826", "by": "klinch", "date": "2026-03-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nixos-anywhere[0] on an almost weekly basis.", "excerpt": "Sounds cursed. But I'm not judging, given that I use nixos-anywhere[0] on an almost weekly basis. [0] https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere", "context": "", "use_case": "remote NixOS installs", "switched_from": "", "story": "curl > /dev/sda: How I made a Linux distro that runs wget | dd"}, {"id": 750268305, "item_id": 46891769, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46891769", "by": "Cyph0n", "date": "2026-02-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines", "excerpt": "It\u2019s fairly trivial to map your NixOS config into a VM image: https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-image-nixos-rebuild-build-image An alternative is to \u201cinfect\u201d a VM running in whatever cloud and convert it into a NixOS VM in-place: https://github.com/nix-community/nixos-anywhere In fact, it is a common practice to use the latter to install NixOS on new machines. You start off by booting into a live USB with SS", "context": "", "use_case": "installing NixOS remotely", "switched_from": "", "story": "Coding Agent VMs on NixOS with Microvm.nix"}, {"id": 749465026, "item_id": 46841564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46841564", "by": "c0balt", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For remote installations nixos-anywhere is great.", "excerpt": "I would strongly recommend sops-nix[0]. Pair this with ssh-to-age/ssh-to-gpg for the keys for each server. We are using this at $work for multiple servers, one notable advantages is that it works in teams (for multiple people) and git (and also gitops). For remote installations nixos-anywhere is great. deploy-rs or colemna is fine, nixos-rebuild with `--target-host` is also working well for us however. [0]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "remote NixOS installation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Guix System First Impressions as a Nix User"}]}