I run both right now, but I am in the process of just running NixOS on everything.
NixOS really is that good, particularly for homelabs. The module system and ability to share them across machines is really a superpower. You end up having a base config that all machines extend essentially. Same idea applies to users and groups.
One of the other big benefits, particularly for homelabs, is that your config is effectively self-documenting. Every quirk you discover is persisted in a source controlled file. Upgrades are self-documenting too: upstream module maintainers are pretty good about guiding you towards the new way to do things via option and module deprecation.
No matter the tool, manage your environment in code, your life becomes much easier. People start and then get addicted to the ClickOps for the initial hit and then end up in a packed closet with a one way ticket to Narnia.
This happens in large environments too, so not at all just a home lab thing.
A NixOS config is a bit different because it’s lower level and is configuring the OS through a first-party interface. It is more like extending the distro itself as opposed to configuring an existing distro after the fact.
The other big difference is that it is purely declarative vs. a simulation of a declarative config a la Ansible and other tools. Again, because the distro is config aware at all levels, starting from early boot.
The last difference is atomicity. You can (in theory) rely on an all or nothing config switch as well as the ability to rollback at any time (even at boot).
On top of all this are the niceties enabled by Nix and nixpkgs. Shared binary caches, run a config on a VM, bake a live ISO or cloud VM image from a config (Packer style), the NixOS test framework, etc.
I'm still usually under 10% cpu usage and at 25% ram usage unless I'm streaming and transcoding with Jellyfin.
It's been fun and super useful. Almost any old laptop from the past 15 years could run and solve several home computing needs with little difficulty.
My setup is roughly the following.
- Dell optiplex mini running Proxmox for compute. Unraid NAS for storage.
- Debian VM on the Proxmox machine running Forgejo and Komodo for container management.
- Monorepo in Forgejo for the homelab infrastructure. This lets me give Claude access to just the monorepo on my local machine to help me build stuff out, without needing to give it direct access to any of my actual servers.
- Claude helps me build out deployment pipeline for VMs/containers in Forgejo actions, which looks like:
- Forgejo runner creates NixOS builds => Deploy VMs via Proxmox API => Deploy containers via Komodo API
- gateway for reverse-proxy & authentication
- monitoring with prometheus/loki/grafana stack
- general use applications
All of my docker compose files and nix configs live in the monorepo on Forgejo, so I can use Renovate to keep everything up to date.
Plan files, kanban board, and general documentation live adjacent to Nix and Docker configs in the monorepo, so Claude has all the context it needs to get things done.
I did this because I got tired of using Docker templates on Unraid. They were a great way to get started, but it's hard to pin container versions and still keep them up-to-date (Unraid relies heavily on the `latest` tag). Moving stuff over to this setup bit-by-bit and I've been really enjoying it so far.
The problem is that people never stop tinkering and keep trying to make their homelab better, faster, etc. But its purpose is not to be a system that you keep fine tuning (unless thats what you actually are doing it for), its purpose is to serve your needs as a homelab.
The best homelabs are boring in terms of tech stacks imo. The unfortunate paradox is that once you do start getting into homelabs, its hard to get out of the mentality of constantly trying out new stuff.
My "homelab" is basically Linux + NFS, with standard development tools.
I think the most important thing for me is that I chose when I have time to upgrade, it's no longer forced upon me, that's why I prefer to depend on myself rather than 3rd party services for things that are essential. Been so many times I've had to put other (more important) things on hold because some service somewhere decided that they're gonna change something, and to get stuff working again you need to migrate something. Just got so tired of not being in control of that schedule.