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I’ve seen Guix pop up a few times and I’m intrigued ... ostensibly a package manager but this article says it can work as an operating system in its own right.
by rusk 6y ago
I’ve seen Guix pop up a few times and I’m intrigued ... ostensibly a package manager but this article says it can work as an operating system in its own right. Can somebody explain this to me? Is this HURD? Or does it have a kernel? Is it some sort of hypervisor or application container? I always found HURD to be exciting in a sci-fi kind of way but from what I’ve heard this sounds like it’s actually something that could be practically useful. Where would I start? Does it make any sense running in VirtualBox let’s say?
- clone1 6y agoGuix system uses linux-libre currently
- rusk 6y agoSo that’s just the kernel and it provides it’s own user land? Is that user land itself some a kind of app container host I could run Linux apps in for instance - but at arms length from each other? Am I getting this right?
- mbakke 6y agoguix-the-package-manager can be installed on any GNU/Linux distribution. It's a great way to access bleeding-edge software on a "stable" distro such as Debian or CentOS. It has some nice properties such as not needing root privileges to install things, atomic upgrades and rollbacks, reproducible builds, multiple or transient (optionally containerized) "environments" (collections of packages), etc. Guix System is a full distro built around the package manager. It gives you atomic upgrades and roll-backs for the entire system (you can choose any previous "generation" in the boot loader).
- rusk 6y agoThis sounds quite exciting. I could use this right away, with all the software I’m used to, and get all the benefits.
- Avshalom 6y agoaside from the standard GNU utils right now it's mostly just guix the package manager and https://www.gnu.org/software/shepherd/ https://www.gnu.org/software/shepherd/
- rekado 6y agoIt's a whole GNU system distribution using Guix to build the system reproducibly, providing roll-backs at the system level, using Guile Scheme even as early as the initrd, etc. I don't know what you mean by "GNU utils", but "Guix System" is quite a bit more than just Shepherd and coreutils.
- rusk 6y agoAh lovely, as an alternative to systemd? Sweet!
- cbaines 6y ago> I’ve seen Guix pop up a few times and I’m intrigued ... ostensibly a package manager but this article says it can work as an operating system in its own right. Can somebody explain this to me? Guix as a package manager knows how to build software, and how to manage all the files. If you build the right software, plus a few more things with some files, then you end up with something that'll boot. One really neat thing about this is that this is set out in one Git repository, making it pretty easy to reason about. > Is this HURD? Or does it have a kernel? Is it some sort of hypervisor or application container? I always found HURD to be exciting in a sci-fi kind of way but from what I’ve heard this sounds like it’s actually something that could be practically useful. Where would I start? Does it make any sense running in VirtualBox let’s say? Guix by default uses Linux-libre, but you can run it with the Hurd. You can start by using Guix as a package manager, it'll fit alongside your existing operating system (providing it's something using Linux). There's also a VM image you can download from the website if that's of interest.