> If Nixpkgs is the default and alternatives require additional research and effort then for most users it _is_ Nix. This is not what parent commenter is getti

> If Nixpkgs is the default and alternatives require additional research and effort then for most users it _is_ Nix. This is not what parent commenter is getting at. Nix itself is a deterministic build tool. There is also a package manager built on top which uses a large collection of nix files to describe each package - this is nixpkgs. They use the same primitives, but the same way you don't just yolo your node/rust etc build versions to whatever your OS comes with and use a lock file, you also want to have more control over the exact versions and thus may use something other than what nixpkgs packages. Especially that it makes it easy to override any property of your dependencies, unlike any other tool out there.