What else could a Nix-based OS be?
finix is a working experiment in that question. It uses finit as PID 1 and explores different choices for modules and services in a Nix-based system.
Different decisions below the desktop.
The project’s documented daily-use setup uses finit for init and service management, seatd for seat management, mdevd for device management and niri as the Wayland compositor.
That is the setup described by the project, not a claim that every supported installation must use the same desktop.
Upstream references (1)
A place to examine the plumbing.
The project points to questions around module evaluation, service structure and how closely services should depend on the rest of an operating system. Those are useful reasons to experiment. They are not a benchmark result or evidence that another system is categorically better.
Upstream references (1)
Know which kind of project you are trying.
finix is experimental. Expect to read configuration, check module availability and work through rough edges. Do not assume a NixOS service definition can be copied unchanged.
Start on a machine you can recover, follow the current upstream instructions and keep backups. This guide does not offer a one-click migration from NixOS.
Follow the work where it happens.
The repository, installation examples and community modules are the useful places to start. Installer work is evolving separately, so check upstream rather than relying on a download claim frozen on this page.