[monday_]

How do Guix and Nix userbases and contributor resources compare?

I like Guix as a standalone package manager much much more. It has first-class support for single-file environment config, and it's in lisp! But a package manager system ultimately comes down to resources poured into maintaining and supporting packages, it's a bootstrap problem. It's clear that NixOS has substantial support. What about Guix?

[Filligree]

Nixpkgs is enormously larger.

I like Guix better in principle as well, but it should be clear that its principled stance on what software can be packaged means it's a nonstarter for many people.

[civodul]

Well, with more than 23K packages, it's fair to say that Guix can satisfy the needs of many people, too. A lot of programming languages are pretty well represented!

[rekado]

Guix can be extended with channels, and so there are channels like nonguix (for nonfree software) or guix-science (for software that's too messy to include in Guix proper) that go beyond what quality control keeps out of Guix proper.

[throw10920]

> its principled stance on what software can be packaged means it's a nonstarter for many people

Including me. Guix actively makes it harder to install nonfree software, and that's against my personal principles, in addition to making my life harder on a practical level.

[mekeor]

I very much prefer the Guix community because based on my personal experience, it is more friendly and helpful than the Nix community. The main help ressources are the help-guix mailing-list and the IRC channel.