Re: common software

[myglc2]

On 01/29/2018 at 18:02 Ludovic Courtès writes:

> Hi,
>
> Ricardo Wurmus <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>>> Even though there is some subjectivity in what is essential software, a
>>> clean installation of GuixSD is very minimal.  Is there a reason for
>>> this?
>>
>> The reason is primarily that with Guix it is *possible* to do so.  It
>> allows different users on the same system to have different sets of
>> software; as you wrote this is a very subjective decision, so we simply
>> leave it up to the user.
>
> Also, I find it more convenient to have applications I use in
> ~/.guix-profile rather than in the ‘packages’ field of my
> ‘operating-system’: I can install them, upgrade them, etc. whenever I
> want, independently of the system config.

But Ludo’ what is convenient for you is not convenient for the Guix
noob: They are most likely already using a mainstream GNU/Linux distro
on a notebook or desktop. When they try any other distro they expect it
to provide similar stuff to what their distro provided out of the box.
By not doing this we a) fail to meet expectations and b) force them into
the Guix config-o-rama, which, if we are honest, is not friendly: it's
in scheme, far from obvious, and produces errors that helpful only to
someone who already understands Guix.

I remember my own experience 2 years ago: It felt like a religious
purification ritual ;-) What is the benefit of subjecting noobs to this?
Force them onto the Guix path? Send them to Guix boot camp? I don't see
any benefit to the noob of us going this. Do you?

This is why we should change the templates so that GuixSD comes OOTB
with the same stuff as any mainstream distro. IOW, we should quickly get
the noob running GuixSD and only then show them how cool guix-profile
is.

WDYT? - George