Re: AUR for GuixSD (was: GuixSD on arm (ng0))

[Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>]

David Craven <david@craven.ch> writes:

> So how rigid are you on the gnu system thing? Was jookia right that
> you won't accept patches that will make guixsd a gnu system or
> something else? ;-) I did some work on using musl as a libc on nixos
> for embedded systems, I came here because I thought it was more
> hackable. I guess if you're not interested in uboot, this is a non
> starter...

We don’t restrict packages in Guix to only GNU packages.  For embedded
systems I have packaged newlib (a C library to be used instead of glibc)
and there is nothing in our guidelines that would speak against having a
package like that.

I also don’t know where the claim “you’re not interested in uboot” comes
from.  I consider it false.

>> This also means that we do not welcome recommendations to use non-free
> software on the mailing lists or the #guix IRC channel.
>
> Does this mean you prefer people not to use the "gnu system" then to
> use it with non-free firmware? I prefer free firmware to non-free
> firmware too, but one has the hardware that one has. I think I saw a
> webgui to guix somewhere, that means that at least some people have
> the ambition of getting non developers as users at some point right? I
> think telling non developers to go buy this wifi card if you want to
> use the gnu system or else we won't help you is kind of not very
> user-friendly.

We will not add non-free software to Guix.

That said, Guix gives you the means to swap out parts and change the way
packages are built (including the kernel).  However, for most users the
easiest way to overcome their dependency on non-free software is to use
hardware that works with free software.

~~ Ricardo