this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
99 points (95.4% liked)

Linux

48082 readers
904 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Reposting because it looks like federation failed.

I was just reading about it, it sounds like a pretty cool OS and package manager. Has anyone actually used it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tried it out one single time and it failed to install or update or something. Had to then find all the places it had inserted itself into in my system. Later I found out it's based on some LISP variant. Even later I found out you can't install firefox with it because of gnu or something?
That all combined dissuaded me from touching it again.

nix has terrible documentation, but it's kinda worked for me, so I'm sticking with it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Later I found out it’s based on some LISP variant.

Wait how did you find out it was written in Scheme after you installed it? Sounds like someone didn't do their research.

firefox

Mozilla is picky with where their trademark is being used, not a "GNU specific" problem, it had affected Debian for years before Mozilla backed off. Guix instead uses GNU Icecat which is a completely libre web browser that doesn't run proprietary JS by default. Of course you can still install Firefox since Guix community members have already packaged it in their own channels.

nix has terrible documentation

One thing that Guix excels at.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wait how did you find out it was written in Scheme after you installed it? Sounds like someone didn’t do their research.

Yes, I read all specs before installing anything I ever use. Before using the internet I researched the entire IP stack, studied computer science, and am right now using smokes signals captured by a camera at exactly 1 FPS to encode my bits so that you can read them.

🙄

One thing that Guix excels at.

L
M
A
O

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, I read all specs before installing anything I ever use.

It's literally in the front page of the project. https://guix.gnu.org/

Hackable. It provides Guile Scheme APIs, including high-level embedded domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to define packages and whole-system configurations.

No idea how you survive Nix's scattered documentation.

L
M
A
O

lmao.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Hackable. It provides Guile Scheme APIs, including high-level embedded domain-specific languages (EDSLs) to define packages and whole-system configurations.

"provides Guile Scheme APIs". Yeah, I provide this software in Slint. This software provides Linux APIs. This software provides HTTP APIs. kek

What a helpful description.

No idea how you survive Nix’s scattered documentation.

Nix's documentation doesn't try to invent a new way to say "this was written in $language" and has less members like you around. Much easier to deal with.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0