Re: advanced?

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli <GNUtoo@cyberdimension.org>]

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On Sun, 27 Nov 2022 10:35:13 -0800
Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org> wrote:
> It also makes me wonder if "advanced" will stand the test of
> time. Someday Guix-style systems might just be status quo, and thus no
> longer advanced. Guix of course will likely evolve over time... maybe
> it will still hold qualities worthy of being called "advanced", [...]
Something interesting would be to convey what users need to know or
learn for using Guix. In "1.1 Managing Software the Guix Way" we
already have hints that it might require to know the command line and
scheme. Though maybe it could be clarified for less technical users.

For instance it "provides" [a command line interface], but that is not
clear that it's the only way to interact with some of Guix features.

If we compare Guix with other FSDG compliant distributions:
- Trisquel is usable by users that don't know the command
  line but less technical users might need a bit of help for upgrading
  from a version to another (in install parties for instance). Sometimes
  they just need somebody to be there just in case something goes wrong
  though.
- Parabola x86_64 can probably be used by users without command line
  knowledge (for a desktop/laptop usage) but the boot sometimes break,
  so less technical users also need to plan ahead and know how to
  reinstall it if needed (that could be done by having a separate home
  for instance). A server usage does require to know the command line
  and also to know how to edit configuration files (like Apache
  configuration file).
- Once installed, LibreCMC (and OpenWRT) are probably also relatively
  easy to configure for people that know what an IP address is, what is
  DHCP, what is an SSID, etc. Guix has the potential to be similar.
- Freedombox (available in PureOS, Debian, etc) looks way easier but it
  is also way less configurable.

Guix has the potential to have the same kind of balance between
easiness and empowerment/configurability than LibreCMC (if
graphical interfaces are written).

Making the current status more clear can probably help users. On my side
I've already taken that into account on the documentation I wrote on
FSDG compliant distributions on the Libreplanet wiki, but I'm not sure
how to improve the text in that manual section, or how to promote more
that information.

Denis.

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