When comparing Parabola GNU/Linux-libre vs Nix os , the Slant community recommends Parabola GNU/Linux-libre for most people. In the question“What is the most secure Linux distro?” Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is ranked 12th while Nix os is ranked 16th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF
Pro Option to use OpenRC or Systemd
Parabola has an OpenRC edition and a Systemd edition, so users can choose which init system they want.
Pro All the benefits of Arch Linux, only 100% certified free software
Pro Very Secure
Pro Has its own repos
Parabola has its own repos (which are almost as large as Arch Linux) and the IceCat browser is included.
Pro Can be migrated from Arch Linux without a CD/USB
Pro Based on Arch Linux
Pro Great for Haskell development
It has all of hackage in it's package manager (which is confusingly named "nix" as well) due to being based around hashing and allowing you to compile in a sort of virtual machine (really just changing the PATH variable temporarily) it solves many of the versioning problems that you commonly have with cabal. Here's a tutorial (there's many others as well) http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~bernardy/nix.html.
Also I should note that you can use the package manager a la carte on Mac and most any linux distro.
Pro Upgrading the system is extremely reliable
Since NixOS stores all its packages in isolation from each other in /nix/store
and because of the declarative configuration model, upgrading NoxOS systems is extremely reliable. Furthermore, it gives you the ability to roll back upgrades.
Pro Extremely reproducible state of installation
Every package in your system is generated from a configuration file. This makes it very easy to reproduce that environment. Just copy the config file into a new machine and it's done.
Pro Versatile snapshot system
You can use and test snapshots without rebooting. Booting into snapshots or test configurations is possible without risking the system's stability.
Pro Has docker like system built in
Pro Allows parallel configurations for multiple projects
As everything is isolated, you can have on the same machine multiple configurations to meet project requirements that would be mutually exclusive on other OSes.
Cons
Con Won't work out-of-the-box on the most PC's
Almost all PCs need non-free drivers but Parabola has none to offer.
Con Not compatible with AUR
Unlike other Arch-based distros, this free distro doesn't support AUR.
Con Same cons that apply to Arch Linux
Con Small repositories
Since Parabola is a completely free distro, there is no non-free software available and the community repositories are small compared to the AUR.
Con Incompetent developers
They only care about removing "non-free" software, rather than making a properly working OS.
Con Serves no purpose
It's just Arch without non-free software and is basically a niche OS with few users.
Con Not really free
People have to pay hundreds to maintain this distro.
Con The configuration language is hard to figure out
For good reason. It's a purely functional language. However not even close to bash.