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I think right now the best option is to run macOS plus Nix for a Linux userland.
However, once GPU support and microphone lands in linux-asahi or mainline, it will be probably good enough to switch to Linux: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support
It's a shame there's no comparable x86_64 machine right now. A ThinkPad or a Surface could fill in this gap, especially with a Ryzen CPU. However, at least in the EU, MacBook Airs are much cheaper. Plus, they are fanless.
One of the most popular NixOS configs on GitHub does this https://github.com/mitchellh/nixos-config
The README describes the experience, though the author takes the approach of using the VM mainly for terminal-based stuff.
Not yet. I checked that it exists in nixos-hardware already:
https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/tree/master/lenovo/t...
Haven't bought one yet, I'm still quite happy with this X1 from a few years back. You need a quite recent kernel with that laptop, and the wifi is a Qualcomm, not Intel, so check how is the Linux support before buying.
But... I am intrigued, just that I don't really need a fast laptop due to using a beefy desktop for development right now.
I run NixOS in Parallels, and it's super nice. I copied a config from https://github.com/wegank/nixos-config/tree/main/hardware/pa... for an updated parallels-tools package, for things like copy/paste and mounting shared folders from the host OS.
I'm really happy with it overall. All the hardware works perfectly, and I don't notice the bit of RAM & CPU reserved for the host. The only downside is that some packages aren't available for aarch64-linux, e.g. Slack, Spotify, etc. I just run those on the host OS instead, which is a little annoying due to context switching but not a huge deal.
edit to add a link to my config, which has a couple tweaks for screen resolution, etc: https://github.com/yusefnapora/nixos-system-flake/blob/main/...
Mine is using an older and more complicated version of the parallels-tools patch, so go with the one linked above if you end up using Parallels.
You could also try UTM, which now has support for Rosetta for x86 binaries. There's a good writeup for NixOS + Rosetta here that I can confirm works: https://xyno.space/post/nixos-utm-rosetta - I had some random instability with UTM though, so switched back to Parallels.