On: NixOS – Purely Functional Linux Distribution

[phant0mas]

Also don't forget about Guix ;) https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/

[_verandaguy → phant0mas]

Is Guix related beyond also being an OS?

[gmfawcett → _verandaguy]

Note that Guix is to Nix as GuixSD is to NixOS.

Guix and Nix are package/configuration managers; GuixSD and NixOS are operating systems based on those package managers.

[bjoli → _verandaguy]

Well, it shares the same concepts, although instead of nix it uses guix which many of us like better than nix.

[gmfawcett → bjoli]

One caution though -- being a GNU project, Guix takes a much stronger stance on non-free software than Nix does. In Nix, there's a flag you can enable that will let you build non-free software in the Nixpkgs repository. I don't believe the same flag exists in Guix.

Note that either system could be used to build your own non-free software, this is more a question of what is available in the shared repositories.

[dtzWill → bjoli]

And in particular guix uses nix internally-- but (AFAIK) at an API level and very little of the nix language.

So it's rather related for that reason :).

[davexunit → dtzWill]

Guix uses a fork of the nix-daemon (for now), but otherwise uses nothing from the Nix project.

[kragen → _verandaguy]

Guix isn't an OS (and neither is Nix); Guix is just Nix with the Nix language replaced with Scheme.

[jgomo3 → kragen]

Sad that in that front page, there is no one reference to Nix.

They should at least give credit.

[davexunit → jgomo3]

There used to be something on the front page, but the result was that too many people thought it was just a nix language replacement when it really was its own implementation of the packaging model that nix pioneered. The Guix documentation gives full credit to nix where it is due. The founder of the project spent years contributing to nix.