To be clearer: I am very excited about trying Guix! After chatting
to an even more enthusiastic friend at work about it I took the
leap and installed the Guix System on an old laptop (which having
played all the music at our wedding reception and been chucked off
a conveyor belt by a TSA agent has already seen more of life than
it would have liked I'm sure - oh for the quiet life of the data-center
server!).
The image on the Guix website uses the Linux-libre kernel which
only includes free software and so doesn't include the driver and
firmware for my wifi card. My friend compiled his own kernel with
the non-free drivers he needed but being less brave I've ordered a
USB wifi adapter with free driver and firmware from Technoethical.
Got an email from the person who runs Technoethical right after
ordering which felt much nicer than the usual automated reply!
Once I've set up the old laptop how I like, I'll move everything
onto my slightly-less-old laptop. Hopefully this will be very easy
since Guix lets you declare your whole system in one config file
in Guile Scheme - so it should just be a matter of installing on
the other laptop using that config. This was one of the big reasons
I wanted to try Guix; I really like the idea of having a single
simple config which can build my whole setup, OS, favourite programs
and all. For now it takes me a few weeks to get everything set up
how I like it and I don't even try to reproduce my favourite setup
exactly (just install things as I need them), so I'm always in fear
of losing a lovingly customized computer.
I'm also pretty excited about learning some Scheme, which is used
to configure Guix. Having started and given up working through the
Little Schemer and SICP a few times I'm hoping using Scheme a little
but often will help me get to grips with it.
