> apt-get them in a Dockerfile > Nix built the entire world You're comparing apples to oranges. Docker just runs commands. If you want to run commands, you c

> apt-get them in a Dockerfile > Nix built the entire world You're comparing apples to oranges. Docker just runs commands. If you want to run commands, you can do that in Nix using e.g. nixpkgs.runCommand. apt-get just fetches prebuilt binaries. If you want to fetch prebuilt binaries, you can do that in Nix using e.g. nixpkgs.fetchurl. You can even use runCommand to run apt-get (I do this to use Debian's Chromium package on 32bit NixOS) In contrast, it sounds like you were using Nix as a build tool, to define your entire OS from scratch (presumably using Nixpkgs/NixOS). In which case apt-get isn't a comparable command; instead, the Debian equivalent would be: apt-build world Guess what that does?