this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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I fucking love Guix (hexbear.net)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I've had an amazing time with it so far. It's so easy to package for (I haven't contributed a package upstream, but I'm working on it). There's like two places you put your configs (/etc/config.scm and .config/guix) and it all just works. Like, I'm not even an emacs user, I don't really use Lisp much, but it's just such a pleasure to work with. I haven't really had any issues with firmware or anything proprietary (old thinkpads ftw), but nonguix and flatpak exist to fix that.

Really the only issue I have is that some software is behind by a version or two, and some things I use haven't been put in the channel yet (but it seems everything I use regularly is either a patch being worked on or already working).

It took a little bit for it all to click, but after finding the cookbook and looking through others configs, it made a lot of sense.

All that said, I'm a bit too committed to Arch to switch my main machine. Hopefully soon though.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Good to see love for GNU Guix. I have contributed to a couple of packages upstream and some build code (one of my patches even broke Guix, but thankfully it was rectified in only a few short hours).

The ani-cli package was authored by me as my first "real" original package to guix. I remember having to argue in the mailing list about the legality of watching anime but gosh darn it there had to be anime on the GNU operating system (my argument was basically that ani-cli was like yt-dlp and the fact that Debian also packages it).

I don't use Guix System personally. Just Guix on top of something stable like POP!_OS and Linux Mint.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And Guix is completely free and FSDG compliant, which is wonderful.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is there an easy way to get non-free software in it? Also have you considered or tried NixOS?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, you can install non-free software, if you really want. I mentioned it in the post, but you can use nonguix or guixrus. They are separate channels, and you just copy like 5 lines into your config (or maybe another few, if you want substitutes). I've tried NixOS as well, but I find scheme to be more pleasant than Nix's DSL (even though I like Haskell). Also, the Guix home-manager equivalent is built-in. It was just a few small things like that, that made me find Guix to be more pleasant overall.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Thanks. I was considering trying Guix/NixOS next time I have to install loonix somewhere. NixOS gets a lot more exposure I feel. There are always people posting about it on hacker news and lobste.rs. But there are a couple things I found weird about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

NixOS is the older project, that's probably why it gets noticed more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

NixOS has much more packages, and they are more up to date. Honestly, it is a shame because there are many things about Guix I prefer (especially its license). Also, if you are a developer, it is really nice getting to use nix flakes to set up your development environments.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tried guix but i couldnt figure it out :(

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

Maybe try checking in with the IRC channel? The people there are quite helpful

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I might, my problem was from the start that I just don't get the "correct" way to define the system I want. Hopefully I get another try after exam season

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

You can actually get computers to work with guix without buying like a $6000 Talos II workstation???

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ancient thinkpad. Not really very practical. If you need non-free drivers or firmware you could use the nonguix ISO's.

I wish I had a Talos II, but that's a different discussion.

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

How ancient of a Thinkpad are we talkin

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

16 years, abouts. A T500 (w/ wifi dongle). h-node is a useful resource for finding linux-libre compatible hardware.