FAQ draft (Was: Re: Upgrade 0.15 to .16 it doesn't work)

[swedebugia]

On 2018-12-30 19:19, Jone wrote:
snip
> And additionally I would like to see two things:
> 1. FAQ

Which questions do you propose to include?
Where would you suggest to place this faq? In the manual? website?

I just wrote the following suggestions to a GuixSD FAQ:

General:
* Is GuixSD a 'do-it-yourself' GNU/Linux distribution like e.g. Arch 
Linux and Gentoo?
 * Yes and no. Both the distributions mentioned mess a lot with states 
and configuration files in different formats and are based on a 
completely different way of configuring the OS.
With GuixSD the goal is to configure /everything/ in the declaration of 
the OS and never having to edit a single configuration file in some 
obscure location.

The roll-back functionality of Guix makes it easy to undo almost any 
changes to the state in Guix imposed by your fiddling with the 
configuration.

GuixSD also makes it possible to /easily/ replicate a friends OS 
configuration making it possible to collaborate and share your ideas on 
how to configure the whole OS much more easily than traditional 
distributions.

There are already up to a hundred shared operating system declarations 
available online for your to copy or get ideas from.

* Is it a rolling release distribution?
 * Yes. But anyone could turn it into any stable or whatever release 
model via 'guix channel'.

* How does channels affect the distribution?
 * They let you compose and maintain your own release of Guix.

* Any stable ones available yet?
 * No, not known to us.

* Can I easily share my installed system configuration and 
package-manifest with a friend?
 * Yes. The declaration, usually a file called config.scm, used to 
instantiate the system makes this easy. It contains no secret 
information. The same goes for package-manifests.

* I am a complete GNU OS beginner. Should I use GuixSD?
 * If you are a beginner and want to use GuixSD, you must be willing to 
invest time into learning a new system, and accept that GuixSD is 
designed as a 'do-it-yourself' or 'copy-from-your-friend' distribution; 
it is the user who assembles the system via a configuration written in 
Scheme.

Before asking for help, do your own independent research by reading the 
manual, searching online & searching the mailing lists. There is a 
reason these resources were made available to you in the first place. 
Many thousands of volunteered hours have been spent compiling this 
excellent information.

* Is Guix going to be so good that people will have a hard time avoiding 
it? When will the beta end?
 * We don't know yet. You can take a look at our ROADMAP 
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/ROADMAP and look up the 
latest features in the latest release statement.

Package-related:
* Why is compilation so time-consuming compared to substitutes?
 * Compiling is necessary to convert almost any modern program from a 
high-level language (like Guile Scheme, Python, C++) to low-level 
machine code.

Whether you compile yourself or let others do it for you, your ordinary 
GNOME enabled desktop takes a total of about 3-5 days of compile time on 
a consumer level 2-core Intel 64-bit PC.  *(is this accurate Mark?)

* How will I know if substitutes are available from the build farms 
before running 'guix pull'?
 * Generally you don't. This is a missing feature. You are welcome to 
help improving Guix or Cuirass to make this possible.

* Why do Guix mess around with environment variables when other 
distributions don't?
* Why does environment variables need to be manually set sometimes in 
GuixSD - could that not be automated?
 * If this is needed you have probably found a bug. Ie. right now many 
package definitions lack search-path definitions (e.g. guile-readline, 
guile-colorized, and many others) causing them to not be set automatically.

* Is package X available?
 * Maybe! Take a look at the package list of the website or search our 
git-repo for the name.

If you are up for it, maybe you can package it yourself by importing it 
*LINK,  following the package guide *LINK or by reading the package 
descriptions of similar programs already in Guix.

Any thoughts?

See also
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Frequently_asked_questions

--
Cheers Swedebugia