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re "guilting": Even hard-core free software folks will not see the use of proprietary software as a moral failing, but rather as an injustice. Nobody should b

by rekado 4y ago

re "guilting": Even hard-core free software folks will not see the use of proprietary software as a moral failing, but rather as an injustice. Nobody should be shamed for using proprietary software. (I consider it morally wrong to write proprietary software, though.) Even people like RMS have stated as much in the past. Ignore those who turn this free software stuff into some weird quest for moral purity. Nobody cares what software you use; they may pity you for being coerced into using proprietary software or they may judge you for writing proprietary software. re serious alternative: Guix is a serious alternative to Nix. It is for me and the scientists I support, because when it comes to reproducible science there's arguably no better solution out there. With my sysadmin hat on: it's a serious alternative, because I'm using it on dozens of machines successfully. On machines that require non-free blobs it's also a valid choice because its design makes it trivial to install selected non-free software packages.

xyzzy_plugh 4y ago
> Nobody should be shamed for using proprietary software. (I consider it morally wrong to write proprietary software, though.) So you consider my day job morally wrong, but I shouldn't be shamed for that. Got it. When I mentioned that I needed some proprietary bits to get my printer working, it was suggested I buy a different printer. Can you perhaps see how that could be interpreted to be shameful? > On machines that require non-free blobs it's also a valid choice because its design makes it trivial to install selected non-free software packages. Great! Could you please refer me to the relevant documentation?
- rekado 4y ago
  > So you consider my day job morally wrong, but I shouldn't be shamed for that. Yes, I do consider it morally wrong. So what? I'm aware that most humans are not free agents and are coerced into harmful or destructive behaviors because of economic pressures. We obviously don't agree on our premises. I don't think agreement is required, so what does it matter? > relevant documentation See the chapter on Channels in the Guix manual. It tells you how to enable third-party channels. Once that's done packages and services provided by those channels are indistinguishable from those provided with the official Guix channels, and you can use them wherever you would use packages and services provided by the Guix project. If you want to replace packages used deep down in the package graph (e.g. glibc or something like that), see Package Transformations in the Guix manual. You can rewrite dependencies and drop in your own custom packages, no matter how deep into the guts of the graph you want to reach.

by rekado 4y ago

xyzzy_plugh 4y ago

> Nobody should be shamed for using proprietary software. (I consider it morally wrong to write proprietary software, though.) So you consider my day job morally wrong, but I shouldn't be shamed for that. Got it. When I mentioned that I needed some proprietary bits to get my printer working, it was suggested I buy a different printer. Can you perhaps see how that could be interpreted to be shameful? > On machines that require non-free blobs it's also a valid choice because its design makes it trivial to install selected non-free software packages. Great! Could you please refer me to the relevant documentation?

rekado 4y ago
> So you consider my day job morally wrong, but I shouldn't be shamed for that. Yes, I do consider it morally wrong. So what? I'm aware that most humans are not free agents and are coerced into harmful or destructive behaviors because of economic pressures. We obviously don't agree on our premises. I don't think agreement is required, so what does it matter? > relevant documentation See the chapter on Channels in the Guix manual. It tells you how to enable third-party channels. Once that's done packages and services provided by those channels are indistinguishable from those provided with the official Guix channels, and you can use them wherever you would use packages and services provided by the Guix project. If you want to replace packages used deep down in the package graph (e.g. glibc or something like that), see Package Transformations in the Guix manual. You can rewrite dependencies and drop in your own custom packages, no matter how deep into the guts of the graph you want to reach.