Re: Guix vs GuixSD

[Chris Marusich]

myglc2 <address@hidden> writes:

Everyone loves pictures! Here are my thoughts about the graphic:

* What do the different colors mean? It is not clear to me what red,
  blue, and gray mean. I see that some of the boxes are grouped by
  color, but I don't see the pattern. The same question applies to the
  round corners vs. sharp corners. If there is no discernible pattern,
  maybe they should look more similar.

* Why is the "rpc" arrow drawn using dashed lines, but all other arrows
  are drawn using solid lines? I think you can just use solid lines in
  all cases to reduce cognitive noise.

* Guix Hydra: This graphic makes hydra look special. But can't this role
  be filled by anyone with a server who has built and published packages
  (e.g., with guix publish)?  Hydra is just the default place from which
  substitues are downloaded. Perhaps we can rename this to something
  like "substitutes publisher" to reflect the decentralized architecture
  of guix, which is one of its great features.

* Guix Hydra: consider replacing "prebuilt package" with "substitutes"
  or "binary substitutes", so that it matches the terminology used in
  other parts of the manual.

* Guix build daemon: consider calling this simply the "guix daemon".

* GNU Guix Binary Install on Debian: consider removing the word
  "binary". I don't think it adds any clarity here, especially because
  you can build Guix from source on Debian.

* GNU GuixSD Native Install: consider calling this the "GNU Guix System
  Distribution (GuixSD)" to match the terminology used in the manual. I
  don't think that using the word "native" adds any clarity here.

* GNU GuixSD Native Install: To make the commentary for the arrow
  pointing to "system packages" match the the commentary for the arrow
  in "GNU Guix Binary Install on Debian" pointing to "Debian packages,"
  consider using a specific common program name as the example. For
  instance, use "/usr/bin/sh" (or whatever the path is on Debian) and
  "/run/current-system/profile/bin/sh". Currently, the Debian example
  uses the "/usr/bin" directory, while the GuixSD example uses a
  conceptually different directory, so the comparison is not as clear as
  it could be.

* Consider replacing the single word "guix" with a phrase like "guix
  tools and packages", since the contents of ~/.config/guix/latest, if
  present, will be used for both command-line tools like "guix
  package" as well as for finding package definitions.

* One concept that is missing from this graphic is the idea that you can
  add your own custom package definitions via the GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH
  environment variable (or the --load-path option to commands such as
  "guix build"). Adding this concept to the graphic may help users more
  quickly realize the freedom they have for hooking up their own package
  definitions into the Guix system, which is not as easy to do using
  other package managers. What do you think? Can it be added without
  cluttering it up too much?

* Consider replacing "Debian" with "foreign distribution" to keep the
  graphic sufficiently generic.

* "Guix system services": consider renaming "Guix" to "GuixSD". Also, I
  wonder if including this box here will make people think that GuixSD
  services are basically the same as other services launched by init
  systems like systemd in distros like Debian on startup. Case in point:
  where does the "operating-system-etc-service" fit in? Does it have a
  Debian analogue? I'm not sure. Maybe this is OK as-is.

Thank you for taking the time to make a graphic to help explain things!

Chris