[willtim]

IMHO the best option currently for a stable OS with up-to-date desktop apps is NixOS. NixOS allows one to have a stable base OS then install packages in the user account from a different channel. Since it uses deterministic builds, the binary caches typically mean no building needs to happen locally. NixOS permits multiple versions of any application/library/dependency to be installed side-by-side, even libc. I run such a configuration and all my desktop packages are completely up-to-date, while my base OS and system components are tracking a stable release.

[qznc]

There is a fundamental difference between system and applications. All common Linux distro unify them into one package management mechanism. Your comment suggests that NixOS is flexible enough to make a split.

Android and iOS clearly separate system and applications and it mostly works fine.

Ubuntu tries to split off applications via snap [0], but so far adoption seems marginal.

[0] https://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/snappy

[yorwba]

If I understand NixOS correctly, there is no explicit distinction between system and applications, and everything is handled by the same package management mechanism. The value proposition is in having clean separation between all packages, such that each application can be presented with its own mix of system packages without any conflicts between them.

[meneame2]

> each application can be presented with its own mix of system packages without any conflicts between them

Furthermore, everything is done, or in the way to be done, in a functional way: system configuration, deployment, etc.

There are even efforts to manage dotfiles currently getting implemented.

IMHO, the Nix way is a great leap ahead.