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KDE Ni! OS Is a Playful Take on Immutable Linux Built on NixOS
KDE Ni! OS Is a Playful Take on Immutable Linux Built on NixOS
A KDE developer introduces KDE Ni! OS, a light-hearted but practical
experiment that brings immutable Linux concepts to KDE using NixOS.
* ByBobby Borisov
* OnDecember 16, 2025
* 3 Comments
KDE Ni! OS Is a Playful Take on Immutable Linux Built on NixOS
KDE developer Ivan Čukić has launched KDE Ni! OS, a playful
proof-of-concept that explores how immutable Linux could fit into the
KDE ecosystem. The project was inspired by talks at this year’s Akademy
conference, where immutable KDE distributions were a key topic.
At Akademy, two projects drew particular attention: KDE Linux,
positioned as an officially branded immutable distribution, and KDE
Neon Core, an effort that rethinks KDE Neon with an immutable
foundation while remaining largely independent of its predecessor. With
that said, KDE Ni! OS emerged as a third entry in this space, partly as
a joke and partly as a practical exploration of the same design goals.
But unlike KDE Linux or KDE Neon Core, KDE Ni! OS is not meant to be a
separate distribution. Čukić says he does not plan to build a new
distro from the ground up. Instead, KDE Ni! OS is a reproducible system
setup based on NixOS, which is known for its strong approach to
immutability.
“This is not really going to be a new distribution (for real, not
like KDE Neon claimed not to be a distribution back in the day 🙂 ).
I don’t have the expertise nor the time to make a distribution from
scratch.”
Immutability, which has become popular in recent years, is about
keeping systems from breaking during updates. It helps avoid partial
upgrades, stops incompatible packages from mixing, and lets users roll
back changes if something goes wrong.
NixOS offers these features by default through its Nix package manager.
It allows multiple versions of the same software to be installed
simultaneously. Users and apps only see the versions they need, but
older versions remain on the system as well.
So, KDE Ni! OS aims to demonstrate how far the planned features of KDE
Linux and KDE Neon Core can be replicated using this model. Čukić plans
to publish the full system configuration of his NixOS-based laptop in a
public repository, treating it as the reference implementation of KDE
Ni! OS.
Lastly, beyond basic immutability, future steps will focus on developer
workflows. A key goal is to make it easy to replace system components
with locally modified or experimental versions, such as testing changes
to Plasma Vaults or validating bug fixes, without compromising system
integrity.
For more information, see Čukić’s announcement.
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News
Bobby Borisov
Bobby Borisov
Bobby, an editor-in-chief at Linuxiac, is a Linux professional with
over 20 years of experience. With a strong focus on Linux and
open-source software, he has worked as a Senior Linux System
Administrator, Software Developer, and DevOps Engineer for small and
large multinational companies.
3 Comments
1. VoltaFlake
December 17, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Isn’t NixOS where the moderation team (/woke garbage) made the
founder leave and even resigned under woke threats of late?
Who’d trust anything that comes from such toxic people?
Reply
1. Anonymous
December 17, 2025 at 4:26 pm
I wouldn’t go this far on a Linux news site, but yeah I have been
avoiding nix for this reason. Insane people
Reply
Miles
December 16, 2025 at 2:39 pm
There is currently plasma manager on NixOS which is a declarative home
manager module for configuring Plasma. I use it, it works, but it’s far
from perfect, largely due to how complex KDE’s suite of configuration
files is. That would be a great area to invest time.
Enabling Plasma and configuring a dev or nightly overlay for relevant
packages would be fairly simple to implement. Create a binary cache for
it and the whole thing would be very usable.
Reply
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