nonguix VS guix-installer

I use the nonguix channel for non-free stuff https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix. It has the mainline linux kernel (instead of the free linux-libre), proprietary drivers and a bunch of other proprietary stuff.

Guix has these things called "channels" containing package definitions. They're actually just git repositories. nonguix was made to have nonfree stuff. It has a lot of stuff including the mainline linux kernel.

https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix you can use non free software if you need to. But the project itself is a gnu project and as such should not encourage users to use non free software.

I think Guix approach is good, community helps with open-source packages, some third-party manages the non-free channels. And they are as easy to use

https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix

There are flatpacks, snaps, appimages, PPAs, channels... why would you except a linux distro maintainer to work for free for a billion dollar company? Testing and maintain their software

My background consists of using/developing Guix, openSUSE/SUSE as well of OBS. I'm a co-maintainer at nonguix, where we provide non-free software which is not allowed at upstream Guix. We even run our own little build service, called Cuirass. This softwore is developed mostly by https://www.reddit.com/user/mothacehe/ :)

$ guix describe Generation 22 May 15 2022 19:02:44 (current) guix 9860c90 repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git branch: master commit: 9860c90e8e5362e0e843efbd45f4563b9746a196 guix-gaming-games 9924ad0 repository URL: https://gitlab.com/guix-gaming-channels/games.git branch: master commit: 9924ad0a66f98ea1b538761fd49521acf4f689a3 flat 094746c repository URL: https://github.com/flatwhatson/guix-channel.git branch: master commit: 094746c1e2e90f2df1e598ab1fd0abb4d75ce84d nonguix 1de0c32 repository URL: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix branch: master commit: 1de0c32142c54bc73af5556d5e45c77152b31f0f

Thanks for the link. Although I was just planning to follow the steps in the https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix repo.

You'll want to read about "channels" which are additional software repositories you can include in Guix from anywhere, There are other channels, but the main one for non-free is https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix

Even GNU Guix System (which is a fully libre, FSF approved distro) can be used to install non-free packages. All you have to do is add the nonguix repository.

I've been using Guix for a bit over 2 months at this point and honestly the whole 'non-free' software thing has not been an issue in the slightest. Use the System Crafters installation iso [1] to get around driver issues on install, and then the only time I've ever had the system complain to me was it warning me one of my hardware components wouldn't work (which it did, since the System Crafters ISO uses the standard Linux kernel). Afterwards, just add nonguix (and I even added Nix as well, so I get the best of both worlds!) If a package isn't in Guix and I don't want to make a package definition, I simply pull it using Nix home-manager. May not be the best or 'proper' setup, but I find it works well enough. [2]

[1]: https://github.com/SystemCrafters/guix-installer/releases

[2]: https://g.stationery.lol/ryan77627/guix-dotfiles

You can try with: https://github.com/SystemCrafters/guix-installer/releases/tag/v202201150226

As for hardware compability, worry not! There's Nonguix! A bunch of nonfree packages including firmware and drivers for Guix! There's also an ISO image of it and even a nice Nonguix installation guide video by David/System Crafters.

There's also a community image (iso) of it made by System Crafters here.

If you need a nonguix installation image, check out the prebuilt one by System Crafters

I used the installation wizard from this image: https://github.com/SystemCrafters/guix-installer/