with another OS nix is not going to be “in control” so it’s probably more limited. I’m not sure how common using nix is outside of nixos.
also I’ll point out that many other linux distros I think recommend doing a full system backup even immediately after installation, the “grep history” thing is not very stable as eg. apt installing a package today will default to the newest version, which didn’t exist 1 year ago when you last executed that same command.
to be even more pedantic, if we follow the relevant official RFCs for http (formerly 2616, but now 7230-7235 which have relevant changes), a 403 can substitute for a 401, but a 401 has specific requirements:
(the old 2616 said 403 must not respond with a request for authentication but the new versions don’t seem to mention that)