6 ms·

> This seems like a large piece of software. That's because Guix is an operating system :D https://www.gnu.org/software/guix https://www.gnu.org/software/guix

gmfawcett 7y ago
GuixSD is the OS distribution; Guix is just the package manager. The two correspond to NixOS and Nix, respectively.
- rekado 7y ago
  (Note: we call it "Guix System" instead of "GuixSD" now.) There is little difference between Guix and the Guix system when looking a little more closely. Even when using Guix as a package manager it won't link with any of your OS libraries, so you end up downloading or building variants of libraries that you may already have on your host operating system --- that's by design as it unlocks reproducible builds.
  - gmfawcett 7y ago
    Good to know about the terminology change. Thanks! I understand what you mean by the difference. (I currently overlay Nix on top of a different Linux distribution.) But without the "system" part, Guix on its own is still not strictly an OS, since there's no kernel being deployed. A pedantic point, but an accurate one I think. :)
    - rekado 7y ago
      True, but with "guix system vm" you also get a kernel --- just inside of qemu instead of bare-metal ;)
      - gmfawcett 7y ago
        Fair point. I stand corrected! :)
  - meruru 7y ago
    Why not call it the obvious thing: GuixOS? The scheme you have now is confusing for no reason. I saw this news on Phoronix and even after reading the article I couldn't tell if it was the pkg manager or the distro that had reached 1.0 (I guess it's both?).
    - rekado 7y ago
      They are both the same. With the "guix system" family of commands you can build containers, VMs, and you can also install a system on bare hardware. Describing it as a package manager really doesn't do the thing justice. You can use all of the "guix system" family of commands even on top of a foreign distribution --- except for "guix system init" which installs the Guix system on your hardware and "guix system reconfigure" which upgrades it on your hardware.
- threwawasy1228 7y ago
  Is GuixSD more stable after this new release? I really wanted to try using it on one of my machines but I ran into issues.
  - gmfawcett 7y ago
    I couldn't say. I run Nix, not Guix. Personally the thing that holds me back from Guix is their (understandable) insistence on packaging libre/free software only. Guix looks like it has better usability than Nix, IMO, but I don't want to jump through extra hoops to get non-free software installed.
    - idle_zealot 7y ago
      Does there not exist a community non-free repo at this point?
      - gmfawcett 7y ago
        I don't know. If there's a decent, supported community repo -- similar in extent and quality to Nixpkgs -- then I'd consider giving Guix a proper try.
mlok 7y ago
Yes, but not only : "GNU Guix is a transactional package manager and an advanced distribution of the GNU system that respects user freedom. Guix can be used on top of any system running the kernel Linux, or it can be used as a standalone operating system distribution for i686, x86_64, ARMv7, and AArch64 machines."

gmfawcett 7y ago

GuixSD is the OS distribution; Guix is just the package manager. The two correspond to NixOS and Nix, respectively.

rekado 7y ago
(Note: we call it "Guix System" instead of "GuixSD" now.) There is little difference between Guix and the Guix system when looking a little more closely. Even when using Guix as a package manager it won't link with any of your OS libraries, so you end up downloading or building variants of libraries that you may already have on your host operating system --- that's by design as it unlocks reproducible builds.
- gmfawcett 7y ago
  Good to know about the terminology change. Thanks! I understand what you mean by the difference. (I currently overlay Nix on top of a different Linux distribution.) But without the "system" part, Guix on its own is still not strictly an OS, since there's no kernel being deployed. A pedantic point, but an accurate one I think. :)
  - rekado 7y ago
    True, but with "guix system vm" you also get a kernel --- just inside of qemu instead of bare-metal ;)
    - gmfawcett 7y ago
      Fair point. I stand corrected! :)
- meruru 7y ago
  Why not call it the obvious thing: GuixOS? The scheme you have now is confusing for no reason. I saw this news on Phoronix and even after reading the article I couldn't tell if it was the pkg manager or the distro that had reached 1.0 (I guess it's both?).
  - rekado 7y ago
    They are both the same. With the "guix system" family of commands you can build containers, VMs, and you can also install a system on bare hardware. Describing it as a package manager really doesn't do the thing justice. You can use all of the "guix system" family of commands even on top of a foreign distribution --- except for "guix system init" which installs the Guix system on your hardware and "guix system reconfigure" which upgrades it on your hardware.
threwawasy1228 7y ago
Is GuixSD more stable after this new release? I really wanted to try using it on one of my machines but I ran into issues.
- gmfawcett 7y ago
  I couldn't say. I run Nix, not Guix. Personally the thing that holds me back from Guix is their (understandable) insistence on packaging libre/free software only. Guix looks like it has better usability than Nix, IMO, but I don't want to jump through extra hoops to get non-free software installed.
  - idle_zealot 7y ago
    Does there not exist a community non-free repo at this point?
    - gmfawcett 7y ago
      I don't know. If there's a decent, supported community repo -- similar in extent and quality to Nixpkgs -- then I'd consider giving Guix a proper try.

mlok 7y ago

Yes, but not only : "GNU Guix is a transactional package manager and an advanced distribution of the GNU system that respects user freedom. Guix can be used on top of any system running the kernel Linux, or it can be used as a standalone operating system distribution for i686, x86_64, ARMv7, and AArch64 machines."