I'd say NixOS probably is not the right entry point if you are looking for a softer learning experience. NixOS is built on top of Nixpkgs package manager, which

I'd say NixOS probably is not the right entry point if you are looking for a softer learning experience. NixOS is built on top of Nixpkgs package manager, which itself could be thought of as a side-effect of Nix - the DSL and a runtime for building software from source in a reproducible manner. If you start by learning how to employ Nix-the-build-tool in your daily software development practices, you will be amazed how little you need to learn in order to be productive with it, because there's essentially just one new concept - a derivation [1], the rest are just community-driven infrastructure and utility methods on top of it. [1] https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/our-first-derivation.html#idm140737320503024 https://nixos.org/nixos/nix-pills/our-first-derivation.html#...