NixOS is kind of like that, the image being the environment you end up with running the system. Difference being you tend to edit the source code of small programs passing/transforming data, package manifests and definitions in NixOS, instead of using the "Inspector" to find and browse live Objects of the image/system and figuring out what comes from where, then running things in the REPL to edit them into the right shape with imperative commands, or use the little widgets to enter/edit data.
Huh, I actually think it's the opposite. Classic Linux distros like debian are much more like Lisp, everything is the same big mutable pile of state and you query and edit it from within the system itself. The REPL is just your shell. It's very live and interactive and a bit scary at times.
NixOS by contrast takes the entire Linux userland and makes it an immutable, dead compiler artifact. So it is to debian like C or Rust are to Lisp.
Yeah, that perspective also makes sense to me. From my point of view, I kind of use Clojure as a "have live environment + source code" and was mapping that to how I also use NixOS on servers, which basically their shells are remote REPL environments, and my Nix code I deploy to them is the source code in a way.
But the perspective you put forward again also makes sense to me too, I don't think there is any right or wrong here :) Thanks for sharing it at least!
