Show Notes
For many Linux users, configuration means dotfiles, bash scripts, and duct tape. But what if your entire system, from packages to users to services could be described, versioned, and rolled back like code?
In this episode of The IT Guy Show, Eric is joined by Aaron Honeycutt to demystify NixOS, the declarative, reproducible Linux distribution that’s changing how people think about system configuration. We’ll cover what makes NixOS different, how to get started without pulling your hair out, and how this distro fits into modern DevOps, home lab, and desktop workflows.
If you’ve ever heard the term “declarative infrastructure” and wondered what it actually looks like in practice, this is your chance to find out.
Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions.
Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric
Join our:
Discord: https://itguyeric.com/discord
Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#podcast-itguyeric:matrix.org
Connect with Aaron: https://aaron.honeycutt.family
Inside a NixOS Homelab: Real-World Walkthrough with Aaron Honeycutt
NixOS: https://nixos.org
NixOS Discord: https://discord.com/invite/RbvHtGa
Medium - What is Nix / NixOS: https://medium.com/@Erik_Krieg/what-is-nix-nixos-aab5610f0d7f
Chapters:
00:00 Stream Start
00:15 Welcome
01:05 Aaron Honeycutt
02:23 What is NixOS
04:14 How is it different?
06:20 What’s the learning curve?
12:20 Contributing to NixOS
16:59 The Future
23:38 Outro
Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency
Photo by Malachi Brooks on Unsplash Support The IT Guy Show
More from The IT Guy Show
I've got a Dell PowerEdge R720 in colocation that sounds like a jet engine, it's six to eight years old, and I refuse to pay Dell a thousand dollars just to unlock its IPMI port. So instead of guessing my way into a replacement, I brought in someone who builds this hardware for a living.
Most password managers ask you to trust them blindly. Bitwarden opens the hood and shows you the code instead. I sat down with Kasey Babcock, a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bitwarden, to get into why that openness matters when a tool is holding every credential you own.
Most of us treat our homelabs like a junk drawer. Something breaks, we shrug, we fix it whenever we get around to it. Mathias Palmersheim does not operate that way. He's a Solutions Engineer at VictoriaMetrics, where he spends his days helping companies monitor infrastructure at serious scale, and he's brought that same discipline home. He runs his personal homelab against an actual SLA, the kind of uptime commitment most of us only deal with at work.
At SouthEast Linux Fest, I did something I've never attempted before: a live, hands-on intro to tabletop role playing games for a packed room of Linux nerds. No idea how many people were showing up. No idea how many had ever touched a d6. Somewhere between 10 and 100, they said. Cool. Cool cool cool.
Home labs have evolved from hobbyist experiments to essential infrastructure for tech professionals, but knowing when to build one…and how…isn't always clear. Josh from Keep It Techie joins Eric to discuss the practical realities of home lab ownership: the cost-benefit calculations, the apartment constraints, and the decisions that actually matter when you're running real workloads. From colocation trade-offs to gigabit fiber potential, we break down Eric's current setup and explore whether it's time to bring the lab home.