As someone currently deep into Nix (even contributed to nixpkgs), I’m currently in the process of migrating away and am planning on just running good old Debian stable with docker compose for my home server. I wouldn’t waste your time learning Nix, it isn’t a transferable skill and totally locks you into the ecosystem.

Another option is OpenMediaVault. It’s based on Debian. Very stable. Has a good community supporting it.

I’m on Proxmox because I don’t have time to learn my way around my entire homelab, so I need tutorials and Proxmox has the biggest community. I use Coolify for easy deployments and testing software.

Same thing with Docker, I don’t like it, but I can’t afford using an alternative yet.

But I wish I could get away with using Ublue core + cockpit + podman quadlets + QEMU/KVM. But man, the Fedora & Cockpit docs are so newbie unfriendly, and the Cockpit community is pretty much non-existant compared to Proxmox. There’s no one doing tutorials for it on youtube, while you can find a new PVE tutorial every single day.

My advice is go towards where your own priorities are. If you don’t want to support a certain mindset, just don’t. If you want to do it the manual way and learn everything you can, then go with Arch, they’ve got the greatest Linux wiki that has ever been written. If you want easy to follow tutorials stay with PVE. If you want an unbreakable system go with Ublue core or Ubuntu core (I’m personally not liking Canonical though).

Follow your thirst for knowledge, In a few years you’ll be a pro.

If you want to learn, go for it! Although if you’re running anything important, be sure you’ve got backups, and can restore your system if needed. I wouldn’t personally worry about the future of NixOS. If the project “goes the wrong way”, it’s FOSS, someone will fork it.

I’ve considered Proxmox, but immediately dismissed it (after light testing) due to the lack of control over the host OS. It’s just Debian with a bunch of convenience scripts and config for an easy libvirt experience. That’s amazing for a “click install and have it work” solution, but can be annoying when doing something not supported by the project, as you have to work around Proxmox tooling.

After that, I checked my options again, keeping in mind the only thing the host OS needs is KVM/libvirt, and a relatively modern kernel. Since it’s not intended to run any actual software besides libvirt, stability over quick releases is way more important. I ended up going with Alpine Linux for this, as it’s extremely light-weight (no systemd, intended for IoT), and has both stable and rolling release channels.

It is significantly more setup to use libvirt directly. After installation, Proxmox immediately allows you to get going. Setting up libvirt yourself requires effort. I personally use “Virtual Machine Manager” as a GUI to manage my VMs, though frequently use the included “virsh” too.

I think having a solid/stable virtualization layer is very helpful. Whether that’s Proxmox, Incus, or something else, it’s a matter of taste.

You can then put NixOS, Guix, Debian, Arch, whatever on top.

You’re more of an expert in home-server stuff than me, but here’s what I do and my reasons why, maybe they can help you find an answer yourself.

I’ve chosen Arch for my homeserver (contrary to most people prefering Debian) since:

1. I’ve been using it for years and know a lot about it, so maintenance isn’t an issue at all.
2. Newest software = latest bug and security fixes, features etc.
3. the Wiki makes installing anything a breeze and many questions and issues are already answered in the arch forums

I don’t use a docker image and I don’t see its necessacity (again, you know better then me). I’ve seen however servers that use NixOS because they can have the whole infrastructure/system in a git repo, which makes moving to a new server easy and without issues, which is not your case since you’ll be running it on the same machine.

I’ve never used proxmox but if it’s specifically built for what you’re looking (ie. home server) then go for it even if it’s overkill. For me personally, Arch works great as a server.

Docker to Podman, absolutely. Also checkout using base images instead of random intransparent downstream ones.

VMs are debatable. They are nice for separating things way better than docker does.

As distro, NixOS is very custom and you will want to learn its way. Arch does not make sense I think, but you can use anything as a server.

Otherwise Alma or Debian? Try HeliumOS too! Or uBlue uCore

Here’s my journey from arch to proxmox back to arch: https://bower.sh/homelab

I was in your shoes and decided to simplify my system. It’s really hard to beat arch and I missed having full control over the system. Proxmox is awesome but it felt overkill for my use cases. If I want to experiment with new distros I would probably just run distrobox or qemu directly. Proxmox does a lot but it ended up just being a gui on top of qemu with some built in backup systems. But if you end up using zfs anyway … what’s the benefit?

Proxmox is approaching enterprise class. I would go that direction without much thought.

Arch

I daily drive Arch on my personal laptop, which is great. I also tried running an Arch server at some point… which I’m not sure about. The updates really start piling up on a server because I’m not running pacman -Syu all the time… which feels bad, but maybe it’s fine? idk. Not sure what other people think.

NixOS

There is something called Guix, which is a hard fork of NixOS from a long time ago. It’s not a 1:1 replacement. But it does have some of the big features like reproducible builds. The Guix folks tend to be really loud about running 100% libre open source code, but don’t worry you can’t run non-foss code very easily to get your laptop working. It may not work for your usecase, but just something to know about.

I’d say Arch Linux if you are sure about doing something else than Proxmox. The wiki and help posted on the internet might benefit Arch switch currently. You can get the experience you are looking for and it doesn’t box you out of using Nix. Arch will get you going sooner IMO.

NixOS seems fun though and I’ve only recently starting messing with it. You will do best engaging with what you prefer best. The NixOS switch could pay better dividends in the future though.

If I recall this hasn’t been the first time NixOS has had to consider Palmer/Anduril. You could keep an eye out for the auxolotl project that is doing an alternative/fork of Nix.

Proxmox. Then an Arch VM to fuck around with and break.

Neovim is the same as Vim but with Lua capabilities and a few other niche items. You might can use just Vim. I’ve been testing it for a year, but I don’t see much advantage to it. Ssh is cool and is widely used, so you should learn it. If you ever work in a lab that uses linux or a data center, it will be useful, and it’s not hard. Download putty (ssh client) on any Windows computer and try to get into your linux machine with it. Or just use it in a command line with the destination IP and go from there.

Before you use Arch, just know that it is a bit tougher than the other OS’s. I use it with Hyperland and had to delete, update, and then rebuild half my system just to update the OS because the libraries were out of sync. Arch can be a pain to maintain, and even small things like the package manager mirrors break frequently. So you just need to install or update something, and you end up fighting with pernicious mirror updates to your pacman files instead. It can be annoying. My take on Arch after almost a year is that you have to either be super good at Linux, or be nerdy enough to waste time on Linux nonsense and menial maintenance tasks. If you ever plan to get laid and not stare at a screen, get something more easily manageable. That’s just my opinion, and sometimes I suck, so…