Re: How to present Guix to a wider audience

[sirgazil]

Hi, Pierre


 ---- On Wed, 15 Jan 2020 03:59:00 -0500 Pierre Neidhardt <address@hidden> 
wrote ----
 > Thank you all for the reviews and the kind feedback!
 > 
 > It seems that the draft was met with success for now.
 > So what about including it on Guix' website, maybe with a big link to it
 > on the front page?
 
I think the problem of "What is Guix?" should be solved before doing that (see 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2020-01/msg00002.html).

Personally, I think GNU Guix and its related operating system should be 
presented separately.

I think that GNU Guix is not a software that needs to be explained to the 
average computer user. GNU Guix, in my opinion, is a software for system 
administrators and developers in any field, and it would be good to present it 
clearly to them in general and provide explanations for particular fields 
whenever necessary (that's what the section "GNU Guix in your field" in the 
home page was designed for).

Even though one of GNU Guix goals is to empower users, average users are more 
into installing and removing application, and that's about it. Ideally, not 
using a command-line interface directly but a graphical user interface (e.g. an 
app store).

The operating system, on the other hand, should be presented to average users, 
and it should be called simply GNU. With this I mean that the GNU project 
should use GNU Guix to generate downloadable installers of what they call the 
GNU Operating System in their home page and distribute these installers through 
the GNU.org website. The pages of GNU.org should be updated accordingly and 
focus on presenting the GNU operating system to the general public. This would 
include adding high-level information of the features GNU Guix brings with it 
(reproducibility, bootstrappability, etc.) which would differentiate GNU from 
other systems. For advanced uses of the system that require deeper 
understanding of GNU Guix, advanced users should be directed to the GNU Guix 
subdomain. The rest of the current Free Software Distributions (Trisquel, 
PureOS, Parabola, etc.) would still be listed in GNU.org as alternative 
distributions of the GNU Operating System. I know that RMS opposed to this idea 
a couple of years ago 
(https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-system-discuss/2014-11/msg00002.html), 
but I think this should be done.

I think this separation could make it easier to outreach to potential users of 
both artifacts, the OS and the "software environment manager". Calling the OS 
just GNU would also help differentiate this system from what the general public 
call "linux". 


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