I’m just getting started with nix, if I’m understanding it correctly I think that is kind of what nix package manager does? It keeps packages and their versions separate and doesn’t delete them, so that you can update some programs and their dependencies without breaking other programs that depend on other versions of those same dependencies. linux.com/…/nix-fixes-dependency-hell-all-linux-d…
I just switched to using Kagi recently and I like it a lot so far! Theres a free tier for 100/searches a month you can use to figure out if you like it.