3 ms·

Anyone use Guix[0]? How does it compare to Nix? 0: https://guix.gnu.org/ https://guix.gnu.org/

capableweb 5y ago
I've mostly used NixOS, but eyed Guix from time to time, not really dipped my toes into the Guix-water yet but not completely unwilling either, the syntax and cohesion is really interesting and alluring when compared to NixOS. I have the two threads favorites (sub-threads in a large conversation) that might be of interest to you: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18908591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18908591 - Guix seems interesting but I almost stopped reading when I read "Nix".... [submission: Guix: An advanced operating system] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528380 - Does anyone know of a recent comparison of NixOS vs Guix? ... [submission: Guix Further Reduces Bootstrap Seed to 25%]
southerntofu 5y ago
I've briefly used both so don't expect my comparison to be exhaustive: - nix uses a centralized non-free repo (Github) ; guix relies on mailing lists for patches - nix invents an entire language ecosystem that's based on JSON + functions ; guix reuses an existing (and complete) programming language (GNU/Guile, a dialect of Scheme lisp) - nix packages proprietary software as long as they can provide a checksum for their executables/packages ; guix has a dedicated repo (non-guix) for that ; in both cases it's opt-in - nix has differences in behavior when run as a distro (nixos) or on a foreign system ; guix has unified naming conventions for both cases (although some details of setting up on a foreign distro for eg. GUI applications can be a bit tricky) - nix CLI is... confusing, to say the least ; guix CLI UX could be improved but is rather easy - nix packages tend to be updated more quickly compared to guix packages - guix maintainers are very picky about package descriptions: i tried to package a rust program along with ~20 dependencies, and the maintainer said i should come up with different short summaries vs long descriptions for those 20 dependencies... which are software i've never used so i'm not the good person to do just that - guix has a strong emphasis on security R&D: bootstrappability is making huge progress alongside the guix project (see blog posts), which to my knowledge isn't researched on nix side ; "guix challenge" and "guix git-authenticate" are very important/cool things to read about if you're curious - guix may introduce major syntactic changes to ease contribution, as was recently the case with "G-expressions" https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/the-big-change/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/the-big-change/ - nix uses mainline Linux + systemd ; guix uses Linux-libre + GNU/shepherd Probably many other differences other people will point out, but that's the ones that struck me so far attempting to use both.

I've mostly used NixOS, but eyed Guix from time to time, not really dipped my toes into the Guix-water yet but not completely unwilling either, the syntax and cohesion is really interesting and alluring when compared to NixOS. I have the two threads favorites (sub-threads in a large conversation) that might be of interest to you: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18908591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18908591 - Guix seems interesting but I almost stopped reading when I read "Nix".... [submission: Guix: An advanced operating system] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528380 - Does anyone know of a recent comparison of NixOS vs Guix? ... [submission: Guix Further Reduces Bootstrap Seed to 25%]

southerntofu 5y ago

I've briefly used both so don't expect my comparison to be exhaustive: - nix uses a centralized non-free repo (Github) ; guix relies on mailing lists for patches - nix invents an entire language ecosystem that's based on JSON + functions ; guix reuses an existing (and complete) programming language (GNU/Guile, a dialect of Scheme lisp) - nix packages proprietary software as long as they can provide a checksum for their executables/packages ; guix has a dedicated repo (non-guix) for that ; in both cases it's opt-in - nix has differences in behavior when run as a distro (nixos) or on a foreign system ; guix has unified naming conventions for both cases (although some details of setting up on a foreign distro for eg. GUI applications can be a bit tricky) - nix CLI is... confusing, to say the least ; guix CLI UX could be improved but is rather easy - nix packages tend to be updated more quickly compared to guix packages - guix maintainers are very picky about package descriptions: i tried to package a rust program along with ~20 dependencies, and the maintainer said i should come up with different short summaries vs long descriptions for those 20 dependencies... which are software i've never used so i'm not the good person to do just that - guix has a strong emphasis on security R&D: bootstrappability is making huge progress alongside the guix project (see blog posts), which to my knowledge isn't researched on nix side ; "guix challenge" and "guix git-authenticate" are very important/cool things to read about if you're curious - guix may introduce major syntactic changes to ease contribution, as was recently the case with "G-expressions" https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/the-big-change/ https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/the-big-change/ - nix uses mainline Linux + systemd ; guix uses Linux-libre + GNU/shepherd Probably many other differences other people will point out, but that's the ones that struck me so far attempting to use both.