Yeah, I’m used to NixOS — however, having to edit the config (instead of e.g. a package manager) is a common pain point I see when others use NixOS, and it often leads to them switching distros.

A pain point I’ve seen with NixOS for new users is the focus on editing files — how easy is it for her to install applications that way?

What network topology do you have? My method only assumes server→laptop connectivity (laptop→server and laptop→repo are implied). If server→laptop is unavailable, but you can install Git in general on the server, you could forward the repo through SSH. If Git cannot be installed server-side at all, this is more difficult, and rsync would be the best method I know of.

Detach the laptop’s head, then git clone from it over SSH on your build server. When you’re done, git push will update your laptop’s branches, then you can git push origin the relevant branches on your laptop.