2026-09-18 17:17 UTC
Replies (7)
-
@HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2026-09-18 17:24
From the discussion on the programmer forum lobste.rs: I just started a NixOS project and briefly considered Guix instead. I went with Nix entirely because it’s more popular, which means there’s more AI training material for it. I don’t intend to ever program in Nix myself so while I’d prefer Scheme conceptually, it’s not a big thing for me. OTOH everyone loves the Guix docs, that’s a point in its favor for AI usability. Joey Hess seems to have been right with his recent comment that LLMs promote using things like configuration languages that are worse for understanding.
-
@db2@lemmy.world 2026-09-18 20:42
GNU/Stallman always coming up with the horribly bad names for stuff.
-
@Skullgrid@lemmy.world 2026-09-18 21:19
I want to try out Guix in a way that’s easy. I have very little time, but when I have time that I am mentally well enough to do something technical , but not confident enough to do something important, I fuck around with different OSes in VMs. Guix has been a bastard to play with. I can get an XFCE/Ratpoison env set up. Rebuilding Guix over wifi is such a fucking massive pain that my only sense of balance is that I keep hammering their services for gigabytes , so they’re suffering as much as me. So, if I want to try using LXQT, the entire fucking thing doesn’t compile, and what’s worse, it downloads fucking EVERYTHING before trying to build properly, then crashing out, or , finishing building everything again and then having LXQT not launch on login. I just get a black screen. I get that I should learn how to setup x whatever to make it run properly and understand what it is I’m doing. But like, I can learn a few things at a time, and I learn by doing and iterating. My feelings on the documentation is that GNUdocs are written by people who make a fuckload of assumptions on existing user knowledge, and even their ability to understand paradigms with no indicators. What I mean by this, is that it is akin to a map with no key or legend. There are different sections highlighted in different colours , but not explanation to what those colours are. And there is text that says “avoid the hinterlands, as they have hostile bandits. go for the blinterlands, they have fine ales and buxom wenches” BUT NOTHING TELLS ME WHICH COLOUR REFERS TO EITHER PLACE. Compare and contrast the Mozilla documentation on web standards : developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/…/Array www.gnu.org/software/…/rm-invocation.html The Mozilla docs show examples of the things in action, the GNU ones (the bad ones, anyway) don’t have concrete examples or things to avoid. Just abstractions only. Changing or installing different DEs was really easy on Fedora; docs.fedoraproject.org/…/switching-desktop-enviro… sudo dnf install @kde-desktop-environment Trying to do the same for a repeatable config.scm , WHICH IS THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT OF GUIX, is a nightmare. Here’s the focused in part of the info : guix.gnu.org/manual/…/Desktop-Services.html I remove xfce-desktop-service-type and add in lxqt-desktop-service-type , then run sudo guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm , after waiting for somewhere between 45 mins to an hour, the rebuild ends and I get a non-working option to select LXQT in login and have no fucking idea wtf to do. Fucking great. Or, it makes me wait 45mins before saying the SCM needed --allow-downgrades, or for me to waste gigabytes of space downloading the entire earth using guix pull. I really want to go for GUIX for a few reasons : sensible, systemd free reproducible builds, a repo that seems an appropriate size with appropriate support, and not going for right wing software. I can’t fucking do that if there is no looseness and “playability” factor to learn by doing. I don’t want to, and shouldn’t fucking read a book length manual to learn everything before I can do a few things that are very basic tasks or doing the central point of your software. It’s like 1 hour before I go to bed when I’m fucking about with it. I don’t have the brainpower to bother doing that shit, and if I did, I wouldn’t be wasting it investigating alternate operating systems.
-
@SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml 2026-09-18 23:23
I have Guix on Debian. Arch is not needed.
-
@Lemmchen@feddit.org 2026-09-19 02:40
What I really want is NixOS, but with the Debian package repository.
-
@dragospirvu75@lemmy.ml 2026-09-19 05:54
I also tried GNU Guix distro when was looking for a free distro. But the Guix package manager was too slow to be usable. So I went to Trisquel.
-
@HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 2026-09-19 19:30
Great writeup! I discovered guix a few yearssago and it’s become my preferred OS. I first installed it on my desktop and then my two laptops. The declaritive system config is a game changer. I like it so much I would never go back to a distro that doesn’t support it. The rollback feature has saved my @$$ a few times. I haven’t done any yet but I want to try packaging some software for guix. I think that’s it’s biggest downside, some packages not being availible on any channels forcing users to install via nix, flathub, or something else. In my experience it can add a bit of friction.