Re: GNU Guix 0.2 released

["Germán Arias" <german@xelalug.org>]

On 2013-05-15 02:53:05 -0600 Brandon Invergo <brandon@invergo.net> wrote:

> Hi Germán,
> 
>> Currently I'm testing GSRC on my PC. So, my question is: What is the
>> difference between Guix and GSRC? Regards.
> 
> GSRC can be thought of as a up-to-date quarterly release of all GNU
> software. It automates the fetch/configure/build/install procedure and
> provides the occasional patch when necessary, making it easier to
> install a GNU package from source.  It has light package management
> features, such as dependency resolution, but it should not be thought of
> as a package manager. GSRC only provides GNU software so external
> dependencies must be installed separately by the user.
> 
> Guix, on the other hand, is a full package manager that will eventually
> form the foundation of a GNU distribution.  It has far more features as
> a package manager, including some really novel ones that go above and
> beyond the usual package management functionality (better to let Ludovic
> explain).  The Guix distribution will provide all of the software
> necessary to have a complete, bootable GNU system, including non-GNU
> packages.  It will also handle all the fun "under-the-hood" stuff like
> system configuration and initialization, etc.
> 
> Both can be used on top of an existing distro but when the Guix distro
> is ready, I will subjectively say that GSRC would be more appropriate
> for just installing a package or two on top of an existing system.
> 
> There is certainly some functional overlap, and this topic has come up
> before as a result, but there remains a conceptual distinction.  In
> fact, I've made changes to GSRC to reinforce this distinction
> (i.e. removing 3rd-party dependencies).
> 
> I think that just about sums it up but I welcome other comments. :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Brandon
> 

Well I think that a system to easy install will be appreciated by the final
users. Especially if it helps with find/install the requirements. There are packages
like gnustep-gui or octave that can be succesfully installed with a lot of
missed functionalities if the user don't care about the recomended requirements.
And not all people out there that want use a gnu package are programmers. So
I think GSRC can help people in this way.

Regards.
Germán.