Re: On the quest for a new release model

[John Kehayias via "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." <guix-devel@gnu.org>]

Hi all,

On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 03:08 PM, Felix Lechner via \"Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.\" wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 13 2024, Ricardo Wurmus wrote:
>
>> Our releases should mean something.
>
> What do they mean, please?
>

This is actually related to the topic I wanted to bring up before we really get lost in the details of release building and so on.

I've always thought about Guix as a rolling distribution, where our "releases" are essentially installer "snapshots." In other words, the installer has maybe gotten improvements and certainly been thoroughly tested along with good substitute coverage and functionality across all (or as much as we can muster) of Guix. This tagged version is important to make sure there is binary substitute downloads (and maybe a corresponding manual online).

There is no expectation, nor really support, for staying on a "release." One is expected (and warned by guix even) to occasionally at least run "guix pull" if not upgrading, reconfiguring, etc. However, we do have powerful tools for staying at some particular commit, through time-machine, channel pinning, and so on.

I think what I wrote above is where we are currently at, though this perhaps is not documented explicitly as it should be. Many times the question comes up about a Guix "release" and missing that we are really a rolling distribution. Clearly there is room to improve here.

Is this something we agree on? I think being clear what Guix is (in terms of "releases"), and what we want it to be, is essential first.

That is my understanding above, and if that's what we want to continue with, we should say so clearly in the manual, finally resolve the confusing different manual version links, and be clear what a "release" is for Guix. I would move to revise our terminology to something like an "installer" version or "installation snapshot." (I don't see us having the resources to fully support releases as in a versioned distro, at this time.)

Just my 2 insignificant-currency-units, happy to hear this discussed further!

John