It has a modest UI for end-users to handle self-service scenarios, and an app portal for OpenID Connect configured applications.
The backend is fully CLI based.
It is very robust and performant, built on Rust.
Yet very much in active development, so do not expect full parity with commercial alternatives at a feature level.
I run it to provision users for my home Linux devices and it supports offline login, my Homelab servers, and my self-hosted web applications through OIDC.
A nice 'one stop shop' for my purposes.
EDIT: Actually their comparison page might be a worthwhile read considering your question OP.
Recently, a major ISP in the Netherlands was determined to be streaming metadata from within their customer's networks to Lifemote, a Turkish AI company.
As others have commented, the article is a little misleading. Especially to those not familiar with NixOS:
"The desktop stack is updated to GNOME 49."
"Under the hood, the release updates the Linux kernel to 6.17 (with 6.12 LTS also available)."
These changes have been made available through packages in the nixpkgs repo, branched to the 25.11 release.
However, NixOS doesn't "stack" GNOME into it. Nor does it carry specific Linux kernels "under the hood".
You can pin any version of any release of any listed package (including kernels) from the nixpkgs repo to your configuration. More specifically even with Flakes, but that's not even required, if that isn't your thing.
So for example, I am running a specific host with NixOS 25.11, and Linux kernel 6.17.58 (LTS). (There is a specific use case for me to do so on that particular host.) This runs out of the box due to how I've configured NixOS, which is precisely the point of Nix, you configure it how you want it.
I hadn't heard of a "self hostable Steam-like platform" before; after reading the above post I became very excited... until I read it doesn't support a Linux client and isn't FOSS.
Thank you for sharing this alternative! Configuring it for my homelab environment right now.
@StarkZarn@infosec.pub have you heard of NixOS? If you'd become a contributor with these bitesized posts that you're doing you'd be increasing the repeatability of your work immensely.
I have no idea what the actual reason is, I am just responding to the German language aspect.
In Dutch the word "niks" means nothing.
If Mr. Dolstra used a "nothing" reference, wouldn't it make more sense that the Dutch person referenced the Dutch word "niks", which is pronounced exactly the same way as Nix?
As far as conjecture goes this is far more plausible than a Dutch guy picking a German word "nichts" that resembles the pronunciation of the word/name Nix.
And for some reason Hollywood has engrained on society the notion that the Dutch natively speak German. Some of them learn it, but it is not their native language.
My own father was harsh, complicated, difficult to deal with.
I always thought I'd do the opposite.
What I learned later on was to ask my own children what their day was like, what excited them, how I could help them when they needed it most... and then you need to listen. Even if they're asking silly things, things they have yet to learn, that's how you find that connect.
And to some extent I try to balance the discipline by thinking, if I drop dead tomorrow, will I have prepared them as best as I could to become their own person? Will I have done it in a way that they'll remember me fondly?
So far my kids have always said I am a great dad, all the same I ask myself if I could do better every day.
I think the question you started with here is the most important one though, how can you do great/better.
Kanidm
It has a modest UI for end-users to handle self-service scenarios, and an app portal for OpenID Connect configured applications.
The backend is fully CLI based.
It is very robust and performant, built on Rust.
Yet very much in active development, so do not expect full parity with commercial alternatives at a feature level.
I run it to provision users for my home Linux devices and it supports offline login, my Homelab servers, and my self-hosted web applications through OIDC.
A nice 'one stop shop' for my purposes.
EDIT: Actually their comparison page might be a worthwhile read considering your question OP.