Let's give a second look at Guix-the-system the main GNU Project distribution
I dealt with in a previous
post. This post is not
specifically limited to the distribution, it is also of interest when using Guix
in a foreign distribution, even if some configuration details change.
In the last few days, I got familiar with Guix, which is both a modern package
management system and the main GNU Project distribution for Linux and Hurd (the Guix system).
As a package management system, it can be installed on most foreign distributions,
including Debian and any other, as an alternative/additional packaging system.
In principle and the traditional vision, the roles were clear enough. Upstream developers had to create and support their own projects, including multiple libraries, tools and modules, possibly for multiple operating systems. Distribution maintainers had the responsibility of collecting a significant software set, porting on various architectures, choosing versions that work well together for each piece of software, patching for coherence and well-established policies, eventually providing a build and installation system for the end users. At the end of the day, a quite complicated and articulated work that many people out there do for fun, others as a full-time job.