Nix package managers have the worst error messages. But I like it for it’s reproducibility. I’m contemplating moving over to Guix, as the Guile language is quite developed, and the GNU folks are taking a dive into experimental Guile REPL for debugging services and apps, which is going to be quite interesting.
I did some research on guix when i was deciding which one of the two i was going to try as a daily driver.
My conclusion was that choosing guix would mean choosing a smaller community and amount of support for a better language.
Would love your opinion if youve done your research on it. Why choose guix over nixos?
choosing guix would mean choosing a smaller community and amount of support for a better language.
I used both NixOS and GNU Guix System, and my conclusion is the same. Things are already hard on NixOS, in Guix it’s order of magnitudes harder. Not worth it at all. Besides, there’s a flake for using Guix on NixOS, so can just use that.
Most of my reasoning is experimentation to alternative form of OS interaction, and I would not use it for serious computing. NixOS is a different thing - since I have only one laptop, so I took the gamble, and I’ve enjoyed it, but if I can afford another device, I won’t do something risky like that again without playing around with a VM. I’ve toyed around with Guix, and I’ve enjoyed it, but my justification for switching over to Guix in the nearest future is:
The first reason is pretty lazy, but GPL-3.0 license.
The second reason is that it will be a environment tied with a specific functional programming language (in my case, Guile). So, if I want to diagnose stuff, I can, for example, use the Shepherd REPL, which will support Guile. In a way, Guile will be a nice addition for sysadmin.
Similarly, I do not see a reason to stick over to POSIX conforming shell standard, because most of the stuff will be done by the Guile expression, right? With some exceptions like having to run CLI binaries, most of the shell will be pretty useless for me. I would not care about minor inconveniences like having to add a few extra characters, like for example, (run ( --help)) instead of just --help. So why not just switch to something like scsh, but the Guile equivalent? I could just replace shell with Guile REPL (haven’t tried this in great depth, so I’m not confident) or gash (played with this a little, it’s quite similar to POSIX-respecting shell).
The fourth reason is that I’ve come to appreciate Guile more, despite it being hard to read as a first timer to Scheme-like language. I know that Nix is more and less of a DSL, but perhaps that is why I’m not interested in it, because the NixOS repo is polluted with multiple scripts, and if I were to maintain a project, I want to make sure to reducing adding multiple languages or tools as much as I can, to keep it simple. Guile can also fulfil that role.
Nix package managers have the worst error messages. But I like it for it’s reproducibility. I’m contemplating moving over to Guix, as the Guile language is quite developed, and the GNU folks are taking a dive into experimental Guile REPL for debugging services and apps, which is going to be quite interesting.
I did some research on guix when i was deciding which one of the two i was going to try as a daily driver.
My conclusion was that choosing guix would mean choosing a smaller community and amount of support for a better language.
Would love your opinion if youve done your research on it. Why choose guix over nixos?
I used both NixOS and GNU Guix System, and my conclusion is the same. Things are already hard on NixOS, in Guix it’s order of magnitudes harder. Not worth it at all. Besides, there’s a flake for using Guix on NixOS, so can just use that.
That sort of thing is another great reason to love nix.
Most of my reasoning is experimentation to alternative form of OS interaction, and I would not use it for serious computing. NixOS is a different thing - since I have only one laptop, so I took the gamble, and I’ve enjoyed it, but if I can afford another device, I won’t do something risky like that again without playing around with a VM. I’ve toyed around with Guix, and I’ve enjoyed it, but my justification for switching over to Guix in the nearest future is:
(run ( --help))instead of just--help. So why not just switch to something likescsh, but the Guile equivalent? I could just replace shell with Guile REPL (haven’t tried this in great depth, so I’m not confident) or gash (played with this a little, it’s quite similar to POSIX-respecting shell).Thank you for the reply :)