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Nix can be said is three things. A build system, a package manager, and a language.

And NixOS is a Linux distribution that bundles these.

No, Nix by itself is these three things. NixOS is a distro made utilizing the Nix system.

>> NixOS is a Linux distribution that bundles these

> No, NixOS is a Linux distribution that utilizes these

My mistake!

No, it’s Nix, the package manager.

NixOS is just a barebones Linux distro which uses the nix package manager for system configuration

The common joke/fact in the nix community is the nix "triad": nix the language, nix the operating system, and nix the package manager. Sometimes it gets confusing, but usually context is enough.

Except that Nix ≠ NixOS, which it seemed was very clear to everyone for a very long time.

Recently some Linux hobbyists new to the Nix community have started using the word 'Nix' to refer to NixOS, which is wrong and has understandably led to quite some confusion. I wish they'd stop fucking it up.