Terminology beyond the NixOS Trademark - point.freeSearch

Published on August 04, 2026Terminology beyond the NixOS Trademark<br>By Christina Emilie Sørensen 8 minutes read tags:nixosnixguixdeterminatelix

Table of Contents Functional Package Managers (FPMs)Functional System Distributions (FSDs)Functional Package Collections (FPCs)Functional Store Conventions (FSCs)How these fit togetherCompatible vs sibling FPMsWhat about module systems cafkafk why didn’t you talk about module systems >:(Why not more terms

A quick one. NixOS recently got a trademark. Awesome. Now what.As a governance insider, I’ll give you a general gist of what this likely means:Using the word “NixOs” for products generally wont be permitted.“Nix” can be used in some cases, albeit only when there is no confusion or product conflict with official NixOS foundation projects.Using the NixOS logo may also get a similar treatment, so I’d avoid using it for your NixOS++ AI rewrite.Of course, this is NOT legal advice, just a best guess about enforcement.Right, not very intersting. The thing is what we call stuff now. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and here are my suggestions:Why bother with acronyms? As much as having cool sounding words is an underrated part of our quest of getting rid of ansible for good, it can feel a bit much. But hear me out.Not just does this help us actually create usable categories for talking about these, as I’ll demonstrate later, but it also let’s us clearly disamgibuate e.g. the classic “Nix, no not Nix Nix, no not nixpkgs, nix as in nixos” things. Insert beloved Nix isn’t NixOs isn’t Nixpkgs graphic here.<br>Functional Package Managers (FPMs)<br>A functional package manager is anything like Nix, Lix, Determinate, Guix, Twix, Snix, or similar. It’s not for instance pacman, or apt, as those aren’t based on turning functionally defined packages into build products.What it actually does: evaluate the package definitions, build stuff, put the results in a store. Lix is an FPM. Guix is an FPM. If you fork “Nix the program,” you’re usually making a new FPM — that does not automatically mean you made a new package collection or a new OS. People keep saying “NixOS fork” for all of those. Stop. Its a fork of Nix. It’s a new functional package manager.Functional System Distributions (FSDs)<br>These are systems such as e.g. NixOS, Guix System, Axolotl, EkaOS. It’s not for instance Arch, debian or windows.The FSD is the actual system you ship: package manager + package collection + store convention, usually with a module system, something you can boot or call “the distro”. You can make a new FSD without rewriting the FPM. You can also write a new FPM that still runs someone else’s FSD, if enough of the rest matches. This is also why the trademark hurts: people used to just say “a NixOS” for this whole category. Well, they didn’t because they didn’t even have a word for this. Anyways.Functional Package Collections (FPCs)<br>These are package sets such as Nixpkgs, Guix packages, Ekala, Auxolotl packages, or even smaller subsets. It’s not for instance Aur, brew, winget, or similar.The FPC is the pile of package definitions. Not the CLI, that’s the package manager. Not the distro. nixpkgs is a functional package collection. A smaller tree can be an FPC too. When Auxolotl or Ekala fork “the packages,” that’s an FPC move. AUR, brew, winget — different beast; they’re more “catalog of things to install” than this functional collection setup.Functional Store Conventions (FSCs)<br>These are the specific store systems used. E.g. Ekala, Auxolotil, Lix, Nix, Determinate all use the Nix Store system, even if Determinate is making their own Daemon for it?Guix has its own fork of this. Nice Guix, real innovation.I say convention because it’s the shared layout and hashing and “where do the built things live” rules — not one fancy network protocol. Nix, Lix, Determinate and friends mostly share one FSC, so paths and caches still mean something to each other. Guix has a store too, just not that same convention… mostly, yes there is overlap, I’ll treat this later. And a binary cache? That’s just a thing for an FSC. We’ll also treat that later.How these fit together<br>Obviously, a FSD uses a FPM and a FPC with a FSC to build the FSDs. Then the FPM just targets a FSC and evaluates the FPC. Duh duh duh. It’s obvious.But like, okay perhaps we can explain that better.Lix is an functional package manager (FPM). Same functional store convention (FSC) as Nix, can evaluate the same functional package collections (FPCs, nixpkgs and friends). It’s not an functional system distribution (FSD) and not a functional package set (FPC).Auxolotl-ish work is mostly an functional package set, maybe an functional system distribution, often still on the same functional store convention with a compatible functional package manager.And you may now say… okay that is heavy. Fair. If you must, you can omit the F.Said in other words: Auxolotl-ish work is mostly an package set, maybe a...