Guix user statistics and upstream/downstream dependencies

[John Kehayias <john.kehayias@protonmail.com>]

Hi Guix-ers,

I have been working on putting in a concept note (to be hopefully
invited for a full proposal) for the Open Technology Sustainability
Fund (thanks Maxim for posting this earlier!). My goal would be to get
support for some broad and deep improvements to Guix around
user/contributor workflows, governance and organization, and generally
improving our response to bugs/patches/feature work. Unfortunately
this comes at a very busy time of year for me, and just before I head
off for some travel.

Anyway, I wanted to ask if there is any info or statistics anyone has
to help with some project information they request:

1. Users & Beneficiaries: Provide an overview of the project’s user
   base, their demographics and statistics, and any other indirect
   beneficiaries.

2. Dependencies: Provide an overview of the project’s software
   upstream and downstream dependencies.

For the first, maybe someone has some unofficial surveys or things
like download stats, mirrors, etc.?

A Guix user/contributor survey came up in the past and is one I would
propose doing as part of this proposal as I think we are lacking some
useful information.

For the second, obviously we depend on things like Guile and Shepherd,
as well as everything that makes a distro tick (packages). But what
about downstream?

I know Guix is used for some research, high performance computing,
...what else do people know of or anywhere we mention this? (Would be
great to have a "powered by Guix" on our website, by the way!)

Anyway, any useful information please do send my way (privately if you
prefer)! I will need to wrap this up by the 15th unfortunately, and
probably a long shot, but would be fantastic to get some funding to be
able to work full time on Guix. And if I make it to the proposal stage
I'll be reaching out to put together more formal pieces and recruiting
people that would like to work on any funded work.

Thanks all!
John