Guix System

Reader supplied reviews for Guix System Average rating 9.1 from 11 review(s) What are your thoughts on Guix System? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 1.4.01.3.01.2.01.0.1 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 1.4.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-02-07 Votes: 1 An innovative and rigorously principled distro that by default blocks out non-free software. Brilliant engineering and beautifully styled. I think it's a contender for the most elegant distro. It certainly has the most innovative work with the Shepherd kernel. The only problem is that getting it to interact with an unfree world generates some problems. There are solutions, but these are a bit complex and often the manuals presume a pretty high level of knowledge and since the community is small there is not an enormous amount of material online. The IRC community is helpful, just follow the rules and don't mention unfree. I've had to give up on running it as a daily driver for now. It might have a place on secondary laptop. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 1.4.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-03-07 Votes: 30 ** Bad: - *This is NOT a distro for beginners.* You MUST write code in order to install and configure the system. You MUST know a little bit of the Scheme programming language, specifically the Guile variant of it. - The package manager performs some very intensive computations, a slow CPU will likely be a little frustrating. Fortunately, when doing routine tasks, like security updates, it is no worse than any other Linux. - Hardware support is /sometimes/ a little sketchy. ** Good or bad (depending on your point of view) - Linux Libre, but can be tuned to receive non-free package channels. ** Good Uses a *declarative package manager,* the most high-tech package manager in existence. This is really the only reason to use Guix OS. - Write code to declare what software and services shall exist on your computer. The =(guix package --install)= command then "builds" and runs this configuration. - Uses the GNU Shepherd server manager tool that implements your server setup declarations, you use it through by writing the same package management code you use for installing software. - Allows fine-tuning of software packages and easy building packages from source, much like Gentoo. - Allows you to install multiple package "profiles" and switch between them, great for software development. WARNING: it is easy to accidentally take up a lot of disk space when using many profiles. - Allows you to "undo" (called "rollback") what packages you installed and configured. When you run an undo, it happens almost instantly and completely reliably, as it does not actually delete anything. - Run "garbage collection" to automatically remove software that is no longer used. If a software package does not belong to any profile (including any rollback history), then it is considered to be "not used" and is deleted. ** Conclusion: I hope all operating systems work like Guix OS some day. The package manager computes exactly what packages you need very precisely. Experimenting with server configurations is as easy as can be. But we need more people in the community developing the latest software packages, especially for device drivers on a wider variety of computer hardware. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 1.4.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-03-24 Votes: 29 Hello everyone, I have been coaxed into writing a review by reading some of the other recent ones - I found them fair and measured, but had one or two little factual points to add. One reviewer, in a generally excellent review, makes the comment that Guix is heavy on the CPU/Internet Bandwidth, and that it is not to be recommended for old computers. I have two very relevant personal anecdotes to share on this. Anecdote 1: My main machine is a Librebooted Lenovo X200, the classic chunky Thinkpad, and I have been running Guix with the Gnome desktop on it for nearly two years now, and it has been absolutely fine for all my usage. Before that I had been on various things, even going through a phase when I was trying out the less-free "light" distros (before I librebooted it). Guix was similarly smooth and quick as anything I'd tried (xubuntu, lubuntu, pureos, manjaro). That said - I don't play computer games, I don't edit videos, and at the upper limit I might have ten tabs open, but it's rare. All other usage however - watching videos, listening to music, programming, writing, Emacsing, Info-page trawling; Guix is a joy on this old X200 for all that. Anecdote 2: Last night I was installing Guix on a new laptop, a Lenovo 2016 X1 Yoga, and decided to time it for fun. I went through the graphical installer, added the five available lightweight window managers because I want to try them all (EXWM, ratpoison, i3, awesome, openbox), and then I was rebooting into a fresh machine in... 20m49s. 20m49s from booting the USB with the ISO image to booting a fresh Guix. That is pretty snappy, I personally feel. The other point is that - EXWM should be included in the "Desktop" section above, it is an option in the installer! Last point (that makes four in the end?) I was actually quite close to a total beginner when I started using Guix, and it was perfectly fine for me. I didn't know anything above the absolute basic commands for installing software for months and months, and it was grand. Gnome is solid. Here I am, two years later, and the other day I packaged my first package. So yes, do join us, and get involved, Guix is wonderful, the documentation is great, the community are lovely. Software Freedom can be sleek and cool and exciting :) Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 11 reader reviews of Guix System...