Re: Roadmap for Guix 1.0

[George Clemmer <myglc2@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> skribis:
>
>> - If we get started with Guix CI and Guix OS, I'm afraid that soon enough we
>>   will end up with a bunch Guix FS, Guix IP, Guix CD...
>
> I think “Guix System” is OK.  Most of the time we’ll just say “Guix”, as
> is already the case, and when we need to disambiguate (for instance when
> addressing bugs), we’ll ask “Are you using Guix System?” or “Are you
> using the Guix distro?”, and everything will be fine.  :-)
>
> The motivation for this name change is that “SD” is obscure to most, as
> you note, plus it creates confusion when people visit the web site: the
> web site has a “GuixSD” logo, but then it talks about features of the
> package manager.  Designating the whole tool set as “Guix” will simplify
> this, and we can always be more specific when we need to.

This is good because it declutters the Guix-Verse for new users.

I suggest that the distinction between GuixOS, package manager, QEMU
image, and source can be re-positioned as download options.

We could simplify the choice of these by improving the download
page. For example ...

1) We could simplify the download labels/descriptions, e.g.,

   "GuixSD 0.15.0 QEMU Image QCOW2 virtual machine (VM) image. Download
   options: x86_64"

   ... might become ...

   "x86_64 VM (GuixSD 0.15.0 QEMU Image QCOW2 virtual machine image)"

2) We could add a feature check list that helps with download selection.

With such changes the support question is: what did you download?

IMO it would be desirable to pick a single term for each download option
and use it obsessively throughout the site and doc. This small thing can
be quite helpful to a noob because it eliminates any confusion that
might be caused by multiple terms meaning the same thing. So, IMO we
should settle on only one of Guix System, GuixSD, GuixOS, or maybe "Guix
bare metal".

- George