Re: Update on distro bootstrapping with Guix

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Quiliro Ordóñez <address@hidden> skribis:

> El 08/10/12 06:24, Ludovic Courtès escribió:
>>
>>>> My goal is to eventually submit Guix and the Guix-based distro as
>>>> GNU projects, with the hope that we can build a GNU distribution that is
>>>> 100% free software and technically more attractive than the alternatives.
>>> This is very interesting. Sustainability?
>> If your question is “will it succeed?”, then I cannot answer it.  It’s
>> the usual chicken-and-egg problem.
>>
>
> No. My question regards plans to make it continue over time. Is there
> a plan to motivate?:
>
>  * contributions from developers

There are several reasons why GNU hackers may be interested in
developing a GNU distro (Guix aside), as has been discussed on this list
a few months ago and outlined in my GHM talk.  Essentially, the
advantages for GNU hackers would be:

  - a direct connection between GNU users & developers
  - direct bug stream
  - direct release stream
  - following free software distro guidelines
  - branding

The motivation for non-GNU hackers could be technical: the Guix-based
distro would provide features unseen in other distros (except NixOS),
and a “cool” technical framework (hopefully ;-)).

>  * financing ofinfrastructure and other expenditures

For package builds, I plan to check with TU Delft, provider of the
hydra.nixos.org build farm, whether they could allow Guix package
builds, as has been done for many GNU projects at
<http://hydra.nixos.org/project/gnu>.

Other than that, no concrete plan.

>  * user base and support

I would imagine that the distro could attract GNU hackers,
freedom-conscious hackers, and/or techies (or Schemers, etc.)

> Your ideas are great and I like that you want it  to be an FSF aproved
> distro. This is the intentions of many devs but it usually is very
> complicated to finantianly and community-wise sustain those
> projects. It is essential to have a plan. It may succeed or not but if
> we have a plan, it has better chances. I would like to know this
> before I commit myself to call for IT student participation on this
> project rather than other projects that are as promising as yours.

Yes, understood.

This is an ambitious project, but my experience with NixOS makes me
think it’s not completely unreasonable either, technically.

Now, I’m happy to get feedback about the non-technical aspects of the
project and about “the plan”, as you just did; I agree it’s a critical part.

Thanks!

Ludo’.