Cloud systems invented this concept called ‘declarative environments’ basically you describe the software in a container or os and the container orchestrator builds it for you. The same every time, you just give it a recipe.

Nixos is that for desktops.

It takes away a lot of the bullshit, experimentation and breaking of a classic os.

That being said, I always considered that the fun part, so ymmv.

It’s like docker for server applications, it takes care of everything for you behind the scenes and just works (ish).