If you're looking to try out the Nix package manager, you can safely use it alongside your existing package manager, on mac, linux or windows, and slowly get used to it as needed. If you're looking to use NixOS as your OS, that's a big jump. One method I recommend to dip your toes is to run the OS in a VM. If you use a Mac, Mitchell Hashimoto published his setup and guide to do so (link) . There are a variety of Linux guides elsewhere to do this too. glhf :)