Re: How to present Guix to a wider audience

[sirgazil <sirgazil@zoho.com>]

Hi, Pierre


 ---- On Wed, 15 Jan 2020 03:59:00 -0500 Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> wrote ----
 > Thank you all for the reviews and the kind feedback!
 > 
 > It seems that the draft was met with success for now.
 > So what about including it on Guix' website, maybe with a big link to it
 > on the front page?
 
I think the problem of "What is Guix?" should be solved before doing that (see https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2020-01/msg00002.html).

Personally, I think GNU Guix and its related operating system should be presented separately.

I think that GNU Guix is not a software that needs to be explained to the average computer user. GNU Guix, in my opinion, is a software for system administrators and developers in any field, and it would be good to present it clearly to them in general and provide explanations for particular fields whenever necessary (that's what the section "GNU Guix in your field" in the home page was designed for).

Even though one of GNU Guix goals is to empower users, average users are more into installing and removing application, and that's about it. Ideally, not using a command-line interface directly but a graphical user interface (e.g. an app store).

The operating system, on the other hand, should be presented to average users, and it should be called simply GNU. With this I mean that the GNU project should use GNU Guix to generate downloadable installers of what they call the GNU Operating System in their home page and distribute these installers through the GNU.org website. The pages of GNU.org should be updated accordingly and focus on presenting the GNU operating system to the general public. This would include adding high-level information of the features GNU Guix brings with it (reproducibility, bootstrappability, etc.) which would differentiate GNU from other systems. For advanced uses of the system that require deeper understanding of GNU Guix, advanced users should be directed to the GNU Guix subdomain. The rest of the current Free Software Distributions (Trisquel, PureOS, Parabola, etc.) would still be listed in GNU.org as alternative distributions of the GNU Operating System. I know that RMS opposed to this idea a couple of years ago (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-system-discuss/2014-11/msg00002.html), but I think this should be done.

I think this separation could make it easier to outreach to potential users of both artifacts, the OS and the "software environment manager". Calling the OS just GNU would also help differentiate this system from what the general public call "linux". 


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