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Can you elaborate on those differences? The concepts seemed pretty similar to me.

medstrom 5y ago
Added an example. Also the dev communities care about slightly different things. They match my tastes, we find the same kinds of things cool, so I've found nothing but joy in Guix. One matter of practical impact is how they prioritize blurring the line between user and contributor -- "uplifting" users into contributors as much as possible. I saw that as the biggest flaw of Gentoo, it was very hard to even know how to start contributing.
- Blikkentrekker 5y ago
  Perhaps you should try Exherbo then. They take the opposite approach and insist that all users be contributors and are often unwilling to provide support to users that aren't at least somewhat contributing back. Their dream is a system where all users are contributors.
  - medstrom 5y ago
    https://www.exherbo.org/ https://www.exherbo.org/ That does sound nice. I'd like to know how it differs from Guix.
    - Blikkentrekker 5y ago
      It's package manager is more so similar to Portage; and it can in fact be used on Gentoo as an alternative thereto.
- geeksix 5y ago
  > they prioritize blurring the line between user and contributor -- "uplifting" users into contributors as much as possible Can you explain more about this? How do they uplift?
civodul 5y ago
For a detailed "Guix vs. Nix" comparison, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16490027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16490027 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23529932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23529932. In a nutshell, these are two different projects, with common foundations, but also different technology and different focuses--just like Julia and Clang are different, even though they both use LLVM. The project blogs and documentation should already give a feel of how those differences play in practice!
- the_duke 5y ago
  I had read both of those before. The first one primarily just says "we use Scheme instead of Nix lang". There are some differences that emerge from that, but most of what is described is also common or possible with Nix. The analogy of clang vs Julia does not fit for me. Nothing I've seen has yet described any significant difference, but rather affirmed that both are very similar in most regards.
  - medstrom 5y ago
    It's not just Nix lang it replaces, we use Scheme in place of a hodgepodge of languages (shell script, Nix, C and others). Almost all equivalents to C-hardcoded parts of Nix is inspectable and modifiable in Guix. There's code reuse across the stack. Even the systemd substitute is opened up for inspection and modification. Nix glues a lot of black boxes; Guix is a single white box. Both approaches are practical for different reasons.

Added an example. Also the dev communities care about slightly different things. They match my tastes, we find the same kinds of things cool, so I've found nothing but joy in Guix. One matter of practical impact is how they prioritize blurring the line between user and contributor -- "uplifting" users into contributors as much as possible. I saw that as the biggest flaw of Gentoo, it was very hard to even know how to start contributing.

Blikkentrekker 5y ago
Perhaps you should try Exherbo then. They take the opposite approach and insist that all users be contributors and are often unwilling to provide support to users that aren't at least somewhat contributing back. Their dream is a system where all users are contributors.
- medstrom 5y ago
  https://www.exherbo.org/ https://www.exherbo.org/ That does sound nice. I'd like to know how it differs from Guix.
  - Blikkentrekker 5y ago
    It's package manager is more so similar to Portage; and it can in fact be used on Gentoo as an alternative thereto.
geeksix 5y ago
> they prioritize blurring the line between user and contributor -- "uplifting" users into contributors as much as possible Can you explain more about this? How do they uplift?

civodul 5y ago

For a detailed "Guix vs. Nix" comparison, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16490027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16490027 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23529932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23529932. In a nutshell, these are two different projects, with common foundations, but also different technology and different focuses--just like Julia and Clang are different, even though they both use LLVM. The project blogs and documentation should already give a feel of how those differences play in practice!

the_duke 5y ago
I had read both of those before. The first one primarily just says "we use Scheme instead of Nix lang". There are some differences that emerge from that, but most of what is described is also common or possible with Nix. The analogy of clang vs Julia does not fit for me. Nothing I've seen has yet described any significant difference, but rather affirmed that both are very similar in most regards.
- medstrom 5y ago
  It's not just Nix lang it replaces, we use Scheme in place of a hodgepodge of languages (shell script, Nix, C and others). Almost all equivalents to C-hardcoded parts of Nix is inspectable and modifiable in Guix. There's code reuse across the stack. Even the systemd substitute is opened up for inspection and modification. Nix glues a lot of black boxes; Guix is a single white box. Both approaches are practical for different reasons.