interview for renewing his green card takes place when he is in santiago and he can't leave the country during that period where they are reviewing his application

I can't give an expert review as ive only been dailying it for like a few months. and that right there is the exact problem with nixOS.

the documentation is lacking for you to setup a good config. you just kinda piece it together through the nixos manual, youtube videos, random forums and repos. whenever you look to change / improve your config it will likely come with hours of work and headaches. and while this process is an absolute pain in the ass, it does have one benefit in that you learn both the nix language / format and your machine. which ive come to really appreciate over time as im able to at least somewhat understand what is happening under the hood.

what i can tell you though is that the portability and stability of nix are second to none. you can essentially configure everything you want in a nix file and at a glance see how your system is set up and where differing systems interact. if that sounds like a good idea to you then go for it. but be advised the amount of work to set up your system and get a bare bones setup might take a while.

so if you dont mind putting in the time and effort to learn it then go for it. nixOS is something i think will only continue to get better with time as more people adopt it, and is the future for how OS's should be approached.

yeah the portability is great, but also you can achieve something similar with GNU stow with half the headache of trying to figure out flakes

depends on how stable you want your machine i think. if you want to know and manage every line of your config and hence your machine then nixOS is for you. that methodology works for me but it can be annoying for your average user, even average linux user