If you are interested in trying GNU Guix out, I would recommend you don't bother. I've never seen such a broken distribution in my life before. I'll give a quick summary of the problems, in no particular order:
Many packages are either broken or only work partially
There is no point in the supposed ``build once, stay forever'' philosophy, if the packages in the official repository... don't build (from what I've seen, there's not even verification for whether a commit to guix will make guix pull fail, so I'm not even surprised). Some packages don't work as intended - for example fcitx5, fails with the exact same variables and packages installed as on my previous system, to work in GTK/Qt programs at all. Is there a way to make it work? Maybe. Is it explained somewhere? Not that I know of.
Documentation
If you know what you're looking for, and where to look for it, it's alright. If you want to read it, or discover new features, or want to find something but you are not clear what section it is in, it's absolutely useless.
Help
For the numerous questions I've asked in the IRC channel (mainly on package definitions, that could later be included into guix itself if required), I got an answer two times - both on quite insignificant matters, like ``is substitute server down'' - ``yes'' - ``ok thx''. I once came with a question about a package definition I wrote, which built fine, but was missing a single piece of functionality - somebody more advanced could probably advise what needs to be changed, and then it could be added to the main repository. Instead, everybody was busy with a meta discussion on how they are all ``unpaid volunteers'' and so sad that people would rather point out the flaws, than help make things better. While ignoring somebody trying to make things a little better, right under their nose.
The help-guix mailing list is probably the only useful resource on guix, so if your question is not answered there, you are finished.
Choosing inferior option every time
Gnome over KDE, network-manager over connman, isc-dhcp over dhcpcd5, the list goes on and on and on and on.
Insane defaults and user antagonistic customization
Guix installer presents you a nice list of several options for graphical user session. All of them implicitly come with a login manager. Is there a way to choose X + startx combo from the installer? No. Should there be one? Yeah. I know it's possible to do by hacking on the configuration file manually, but I don't understand why it can't be included in the installer, especially since I've seen numerous people complaining about being forced to use login manager.
Shortcomings of implementation
Guix sounds good on paper, but usually fails in real-world applications. Installing packages per user sounds great, until you realize that there is zero accommodation for doing that in case of programs running as daemons, so you either have to add it to the system-wide configuration file (therefore enabling it for all users anyway), or get raped.
Getting package definitions right is hard
Maybe this is the reason so many packages don't work. Maybe the hostile ``if you want something, contribute, we're not doing it'' attitude is just because the ``unpaid volunteers'' CAN'T actually do it either. Maybe all the skilled people turn away from Guix after they get ignored when trying to contribute.
Nonfree packages policy
This is salvaged by 3rd party, therefore I would say it's still flaw in Guix system, since the official repository does not include non-free software (as expected of a project under flagship of GNU). I find it VERY ironic, that the only time I've had a problem with something from nongnu repository was when... guix repository had a commit that made the pull fail. I guess the higher quality of nongnu repo means that the people behind it are paid? It's a mystery.
Many useful packages missing
Most baffling being all the KDE/Qt packages, which gimps most of the ones that actually build from the repo, and makes it impossible to bring the more useful ones/ones that would ungimp the gimped packages over..
Whatever I forgot
Honestly, it's hard to remember every single instance of what annoyed me in Guix, since there are just so many. This is by no means an exhaustive list, it's just annoyances that stood out enough that they are at the top of my head.
To not be pessimistic, I have two things I can praise Guix for - using a real programming language for its package definitions, which is very welcome and makes it way easier to get into writing these yourself, and for making an additional display work on my computer. I suspect the latter might actually be to nonguix's credit, seeing as I'm using the kernel from there, but I'd like to believe...
I had come hoping for a very stable, yet flexible system with great possibilities, and instead got a half-baked, broken, unreliable system maintained by the same sort of people. My disappointment is immeasurable, and my days to come are ruined. Still slightly better than Ubuntu though.
Note: I'm using nonguix and nongnu interchangeably, although if we were pedantic they stand for sligthly different things - nonguix being the name of the repository (channel in guix parlance), while nongnu is the namespace packages are installed under on your system.
Note 2: The entire post is concerned with GNU Guix System, installed through the ISO from the official website. It's also possible to use Guix as a package manager on top of another system (therefore enabling you to use your distribution's package manager, and Guix at the same time), and while it might alleviate some of the issues listed here, it creates different ones, for example having to hack around with paths. This system/standalone split might be one of the reasons why Guix in general is so half-baked, but who knows.
Don't care, didn't read. GNU/Hurd forever!
>>2
You can't even run GNU Guix with GNU HTurd outside of a VM. Which is another pathetic, half-baked feature for the pile, I suppose. Guix could be entirely summed up in one sentence: promises much, delivers little. There's your tl;dr.
>>3
Don't care, Mr. Graphomaniac, works on my machine.
Is there a way to choose X + startx combo from the installer?
Stopped installing right here.
>>4
don't care; didn't ask
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wLkfz10Srxw
>>1
It all depends on your expectations. I see GNU Guix as a replacement for GNU Stow. In this capacity, GNU Guix does well.
2019-05-02 Guix https://textboard.org/prog/41
Thank you >>8, my loyal servant, for your eagerness. Know however that I am aware of that thread, and I even posted there! Yes, if you did your research, you would know that https://textboard.org/prog/41/90 was none other than I!
GNU is bloat.
The only time I'd ues GNU is where I want to make sure that no sofrware is proprietary, including firmware/drivers, because they have a clear policy.
Otherwise - I'd use OpenBSD if you can, FreeBSD or other *BSD if you cannot.
There are other operating systems, but none that have modern desktop usability like OpenBSD/FreeBSD.
Interesting, you can't startx WM with OpenBSD, but you still shill for CopeBSD as non-bloat.
I don't even mention lack of or outdated packages. *BSD lost its momentum in 2000's, GNU/Linux is industry standard now and the next hot thing is GNU/Hurd.
GNU Guix works for me. It must be because I know how to read and write in Scheme Guile.
modern desktop usability
freebsd
GNU Guix works for me. It must be because I know how to use computer.
i can't fuckin build any packages man
What's the rant about? Guix is basically a package manager for Guile. I use it on my Arch to install Guile libs.
Also, thanks to my attempt to play with Guix OS in VM I discovered EXWM and I like this discovery.
Should you use Guix OS/distro at this point? Probably no. Anyway, if you become autistic enough, you can fork the project and develop your "special" distro with startx enabled since login-manager-sucks is obviously the only legit point in your rant. ~~I use GNOME, BTW==
I was looking into Nix and Guix for the past week and it's a sad state of affairs.
It's such a cool concept but I ran across one sysadmin comment that turned me off from ever using either in production builds.
If the build goes wrong, are you confident enough you'll be able to fix it?
Looking at the complexity behind the nix scripting language and the lack of package management organiziation within guix (as well as Nix, they basically get packages broken every other day) there's no way I could be bothered to learn it.
The only reason to learn either is to flex people on your dotfile start up scripts, which you only run once every three years unless you're a kleptomaniac of your own bank account getting a new computer every year. Even then, just a year.
https://blog.cmpxchg8b.com/2020/07/you-dont-need-reproducible-builds.html
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixpkgss-current-development-workflow-is-not-sustainable/18741
Guix is objectively cooler than Nix but (and respectfully but) their integrity limits its spread and the packages available. I think there is a nonfree guix branch.
Just a scatter of thoughts from an onlooker; I may be wrong in some of my statements here.
Realistically how much of Guix and Nix do you need to know before you're prepared to deal with shit going wrong in prod?
I think there is a nonfree guix branch.
That's nonguix.
https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix
>>16
wow, only a true moron could admit he doesn't understand something, but also present his opinions on it as objective truth in the same post
first of all, guix is not ``basically a package manager for guille''. that's like saying guix is ``basically package manager for emacs'', which would actually be closer, because people actually mention and recommend switching from package.el and friends to managing emacs packages with guix, but still fucking stupid. guix is a functional package manager that solves (at least in theory) issues such as dependency rape and inability to confirm whether binary was really generated from given source code. the main differences between it and nix, its predecessor, being that it uses dialect of scheme instead of dsl, and doesn't accept proprietary software into its main repository
second of all, why the fuck would you ``fork the project'' to ``develop your special distro with startx enabled''? are you brain damaged? do you understand the words you are using? why the hell would you fork the project, when the facilities to use startx are in it already, and the question in OP was why it's not an option in the installer, since it costs pretty much nothing to add it there, because as mentioned earlier, the facilities are there, and it's not difficult to do
i'd recommend you lurk 50 years before posting
>>17
i don't see it ever having wide, long-lasting adoption, because to be frank, the bar to get into it is pretty high for somebody with no prior knowledge of lisp or functional programming, and the problems it solves are realistically already covered by other tools in the industry. it's a neat, but ultimately hobbyist thing.
also i think the guy you linked to misses the point of reproducible builds. as long as the build is deterministic (the source doesn't have any randomness in it), it should produce the same hash every time. to verify this, you don't need to build the package yourself, you can just use guix challenge to verify. the trust of course lies somewhere, but with packages being equivalent to source code that generated it, you always have the possibility to challenge it by reading the source code, instead of putting your full trust into a vendor without being able to do any verification (as it would be with signing keys). being able to download packages over unsafe networks is a nice boon as well.
>>18
the further you go from the popular, accepted solutions, the more raped you get when things go wrong. there's no support license you can buy as far as i know, therefore if something you need to do doesn't really benefit the project in any way, you might not get the help you require to solve the problem. guix being sufficiently different from other linux distributions, and also niche, means that integration with existing tooling might range from difficult to straight up impossible, furthermore it will be harder to find employees that will be able to manage such servers, so you will need to train them. therefore i'm of opinion that no amount of knowledge on guix will fully save your ass if things go really wrong
i'd recommend you lurk 50 years before posting
I recommend to lick my asshole before posting because you can't fucking read:
login-manager-sucksis obviously the only legit point in your rant.
So, you are crying to mommy that Guix devs don't provide you with option to use startx and nothing changes? Then, if you don't like how free software is made, do it yourself, you have the source code and are free to change it. Moreover, pussy OP admits that no-login-manager option just requires a minor hack in installation script. Do it, change it and share with others, stupid fuck, stop being a forever-complaining sissy.
hey >>21 can you go back to nu4chan and take the unfunny memes you bring here on your way out? again, you sound like you never even wrote a package for guix, so i doubt you have even the faintest idea of the process or what it involves, so you should stop talking ``please''
Starting to look like l**nchan over here
So GTFO back to your snowflake niggerlover marxist academia, it's our chan now.
>>23
We have a group of /PoolOfLosers/ sockpuppets who arrived recently, but their compulsion to use their standard forms of idiocy >>24 in every post makes it very easy for everyone to identify them as outsiders.
>>25
You haven't written a line of code in Lisp, I think you are outsider lazy w*stoid.
>>11
You are dumb.
If you want to start an WM on OpenBSD with startx - you put shit in .xsession I thinks.. and you should have enabled Xenodm, since it's more secure. It's included, just enable it
Nope, idiot, startx for non-root is blocked by CopeBSD devs.
Xorg(1). The Xorg binary is no longer installed setuid, so startx(1) can no longer be used by non-root users
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/upgrade65.html
But I see the level of your expertise now, thanks.
Guix repo site "Cuirass" https://ci.guix.gnu.org/ was down for couple of days. Are there any mirrors? Or are there any guides to make one?
>>28
Dunno - worked for me like a month ago.
And I DID recomment Xenodm, not startx anyways, so stop complaining lol.
Oh, gotcha.
Guix no startx — complaining OK.
CopdeBSD no startx — STOP COMPLAINING JUST USE WHAT THEO ORDERED TO YOUOH GOD I WANT TO SUCK THEO'S DICK
>>29
There's https://bordeaux.guix.gnu.org/ announcement: https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/substitutes-now-also-available-from-bordeauxguixgnuorg/
>>33
Thanks.
>>32
Lmfao actually kind-of the opposite.. I dislike Theo in ways
Interacting with Theo — fuck no.
Watching Theo sperg — fuck yes.