Yeah the syntax is intimidating. Its definitely one of those things where its easier to start off by copying examples and then slowly learn all the details. After using it for a while it mostly starts to feel like a slightly different JSON syntax (there are a few exceptions to this but you don't end up needing that for most of what you do).

Sorry to hear you had issues on ubuntu. Its hard to say how you might improve your experience without knowing more details. The nix forum is probably a good place to get support for that sort of thing.