You can install packages by installing nix into your homedir. But you will never get binary packages this way. The reason is because when the software is compi

You can install packages by installing nix into your homedir. But you will never get binary packages this way. The reason is because when the software is compiled, it's stashed in the /nix directory, and might refer to other artifacts in /nix. For example, zlib.so exists in /nix/store/zlib-.../lib/zlib.so, and links to glibc.so, which exists in /nix/store/glibc-.../lib/libc.so.6. So if you want to install zlib and get binary packages, you need to first install glibc. And you need to put glibc in the place that zlib will expect it.