Nixette – Declarative, Sourceful, and Unapologetically Herself

A playful concept distro imagined as the transfemme child of NixOS and Gentoo. Nixette blends the reproducible confidence of flakes with the fine-grained self-expression of USE flags, wrapped in a trans flag palette and a big, affirming hug.

Identity Snapshot

Tagline: Declarative, sourceful, and unapologetically herself.
Mascot: Chibi penguin “Nixie” with pastel pigtails, Nix snowflake + Gentoo swirl hoodie.
Palette: #55CDFC (sky blue), #F7A8B8 (pink), #FFFFFF, plus a deep accent #7C3AED.
Pronoun Prompt: The installer asks for name/pronouns and personalises MOTD, systemd messages, and shell prompt.

Feature Mix

Pillar	How Nixette expresses it
Reproducibility	Flake-native system definitions with versioned profiles (`comfort-zone`, `diy-princess`, `studio-mode`).
Custom compilation	`nix emerge` bridge turns Gentoo ebuild overlays into reproducible derivations with cached binaries.
Playful polish	Catppuccin-trans themes, `nixette-style` CLI to sync GTK/Qt/terminal styling, dynamic welcome affirmations.
Inclusive defaults	Flatpak + Steam pre-set for accessibility tools, Fcitx5, Orca, speech-dispatcher, pronoun-friendly docs.

Toolchain Concepts

trans-init installer – Guided TUI that outputs flake.nix, including overlays for the nix emerge bridge. Provides story-mode narration for first boot.
nixette-style – Syncs wallpapers, SDDM theme, terminal palette, Qt/KDE settings, all sourced from a YAML theme pack.
emerge-optional – Spins up Gentoo chroots inside Nix build sandboxes for packages happiest as ebuilds. Output is cached as a Nix store derivation.
affirm-d – Small daemon rotating /etc/motd, desktop notifications, and TTY colour accents with inclusive affirmations.

Profile Catalogue

Profile	Intent
Comfort Zone	KDE Plasma, PipeWire, Wayland, cozy defaults, automatic Catgirl cursor + emoji fonts.
DIY Princess	Minimal sway-based stack, just the flake scaffolding and overlay hooks for custom builds.
Studio Mode	Focuses on creative tooling (Krita, Blender, Ardour) and low-latency kernels, GPU tuning.

Roadmap Sketch

Moodboard → Brand Pack (logo, icon, wallpapers, VT boot splash).
Prototype flakes – nix flake init --template nixette#comfort-zone etc.
Gentoo overlay bridge – Validate nix emerge on a handful of ebuilds (mesa, wine, gamescope).
Installer draft – BubbleTea/ratatui-driven TUI, prompts for pronouns + accessibility preferences.
Community docs – Write inclusive user guide, contributor covenant, pronoun style guide.
Launch zine – Release notes styled like a mini-comic introducing Nixie’s origin story.
Accessibility audit – Keyboard navigation, screen-reader pass, dyslexia-friendly typography options.
Beta cosy jam – Invite testers via queer sysadmin spaces; collect feedback through anonymous forms.

Affirmations YAML (snippet)

- id: bright-morning
  message: "Good morning, {name}! Your system is as valid and custom as you are."
  colour: "#F7A8B8"
- id: compile-hugs
  message: "Kernel rebuilds take time. You deserve rest breaks and gentle music."
  colour: "#55CDFC"

Logo & Wallpaper

See assets/nixette-logo.svg for the primary wordmark, assets/nixette-mascot.svg for Nixie’s badge, and assets/nixette-wallpaper.svg for a 4K wallpaper concept.

Reference Configs

concepts/nixette/sample_flake.nix demonstrates the comfort-zone profile with nix emerge, affirmd, and theming hooks.

Contributing Idea Seeds

Write sample flakes showcasing the hybrid build pipeline.
Mock up the mascot in SVG for use in documentation.
Design additional wallpapers (night mode, pride variants, low-light).
Draft inclusive documentation templates (issue/PR forms, community guidelines).
Publish a community pledge emphasising safety, pronoun respect, and boundaries.
Host monthly "compile & chill" streams to showcase contributions.

Let Nixette be the distro that compiles joy, not just binaries. 💜

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