I realize that you just cited two particular issues as examples for a deeper problem. But still: The command `nix-shell -p firefox` spawns a subshell in which F

I realize that you just cited two particular issues as examples for a deeper problem. But still: The command `nix-shell -p firefox` spawns a subshell in which Firefox is in the PATH. (In case Firefox has not been downloaded before, it will by this command.) Others shells are unaffected by this command, and in fact, it is possible to have different versions of Firefox available in other subshells. This feature might be especially useful to web developers interested in gauging compatibility of their sites with different versions of browsers. To enable KDE, you put this into your configuration.nix: services.xserver.desktopManager.plasma5.enable = true; Perhaps you are also interested in the following cheatsheet: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Cheatsheet https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Cheatsheet I've been using NixOS since 2017 and don't ever want to look back. I agree that NixOS is not anywhere close to modern GUI distros, but do like the documentation, and the friendliness and speed of the community.