[slgeorge]

For those that don't know Guix can be used as:

* a package manager on top of an existing Linux distribution (think apt or rpm)

* a development environment (think Python venv but for any language)

* a VM system (like Docker but declarative)

* a Linux distribution (similar to Nix)

It's a small and friendly community - we recently started an English-speaking online user-group:

  https://www.meetup.com/guix-london/

Next meetup is Monday next week - please come along!

I also did an Intro post to some of the advantages and challenges a couple of years ago:

https://www.futurile.net/2021/09/26/guix-alternative-to-snap...

[graemep]

"Guix is a rolling release distribution, the versions of each application are updated continuously. The benefit of rolling releases is that enhancements are available immediately"

The last time I looked at Guix a lot of packages were not up to date, and this included security updates for internet facing things (IIRC, one of the major web servers).

[slgeorge]

New packages and updates to packages come into the archive continuously. For example, in roughly the last 24 hours 40 packages were added or updated - https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/log/ . Advantage of this is that you can use new packages immediately and there's no big 'upgrade'. Challenges are that if you were an enterprise and wanted to stick on an 'old' version this wouldn't the right distribution.

Guix does receive security updates, and those are added to the archive immediately. I haven't had any problems myself. It's definitely a 'community' project, so you have to enjoy doing a bit of hacking!

[SkyMarshal]

> * a Linux distribution (similar to Nix)

To nitpick, you mean similar to NixOS. Nix is the package manager, Nix language is the config language that manages the package manager, and NixOS is the operating system created from those two.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

> a Linux distribution (similar to Nix)

I'm pretty sure all of these are like nix, right? I've used nix on top of other distros, the development environment thing is like nix-shell, nix is happy to build container images, and of course there's nixos.

[slgeorge]

Yes, I wasn't throwing shade on Nix, I was drawing a specific comparison about Linux distributions.

My opinion is that Guix/Nix move the state of the art for Linux distributions forward. So Guix<->Nix are both similar Linux distributions, and different from previous approaches (e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, Redhat etc).

Transactional package management and declarative system configuration solve a whole host of problems. Guix (and Nix?) directly integrates configuration management into the OS, rather than as some adjunct piece of tooling (Ansible, Terraform etc). We define the packages, the system, the configuration using the same DSL. Transactions and a declarative approach improve maintainability, reproduciblity and might limit the amount of time I spend messing with different tooling ;-)

[colordrops]

Guix was originally derived from Nix. Guix has different goals.

[gigatexal]

With nix i can install free, non-free apps -- the amount of nix-able stuff is a ton. Is Guix only set to install FSF blessed proprietary free stuff?

[slgeorge]

No.

Guix is more similar to Debian, with only 'Free Software' applications in the main archive.

For proprietary codecs, firmware and so forth there is the Nonguix channel. Again, this is fairly similar to how distributions like Ubuntu have handled this line in the past.

I need Chrome and also have some games loaded using 'channels' - heh heh - another post:

https://www.futurile.net/2022/12/04/proprietary-apps-on-guix...

A lot of Guix users use Flatpaks.

[rekado]

No. While the core repository (we call that a "channel") only includes free software, there are no restrictions whatsoever on what you can or cannot install with Guix.

Guix makes it trivial to add third-party channels (such as nonguix, guix-science-nonfree, or other free software channels like guix-cran or guix-science) or extend Guix in an ad-hoc fashion.

You can also build an entirely private collection of packages if you want; from a file, from a git repository, from a Guile expression, etc.

[b5n]

https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Channels.html

https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix

[gigatexal]

Thanks for addressing my ignorance.

[matrss]

> * a package manager on top of an existing Linux distribution (think apt or rpm)

Just to add to this: don't just think apt or rpm, also think conda/mamba, homebrew or pipx. Nix, and I am sure guix as well, unify this "traditional" distinction between system and user package managers.

[jcul]

I used to attend a C++ meetup in my previous city, but since have moved.

I sometimes think about setting something up in my new city.

Do you have any advice for getting a meetup off the ground? I guess meetup is still the best thing to use (it was what my old C++ user group used).

[slgeorge]

We're a small group 5-10 people, so it's very informal and friendly. I'm sure Fabio (https://fabionatali.com/) who organised it would have good advice! I'll say that from my perspective the fact that it's also virtual is really great as otherwise I couldn't attend!