This page might be the most controversial one i've written, and it may make a lot of people anrgy, so before i start i'll tell you that if you don't agree with something said here, contact me at kwa@duck.com and try to be polite about your opinions. On with the show!
So you know about that one annoying copypasta about how Linux is actually GNU/Linux or even GNU+Linux? Well what if i told you that you can use linux without GNU while still being minimal, fast and very usable? Well look no further than Alpine linux!
It's a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox. What does that mean? It means that it uses
If you know what you're doing, most probbably yeah! It's a distribution known for being incredibly fast and small, while being very secure. It's for privacy geeks and GNU-less people that i honestly admire and respect deeply.
Gentoo is a free operating system based on Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need.
Extreme configurability, performance, and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience.
What does that mean? It means that to install any application, you need to compile its source code to machine code on your OWN machine, that means that alongside using up much more time, resources, power and effort you get no real upside apart from the possible reconfiguration of the software. It also lets you tailor the programs to your own usecases. Don't need bluetooth? Don't compile bluetooth compatibility in your software! Here are some notable features of Gentoo:
While it's an important distribution and lets anyone mass-compile packages without much effort, while making the source code to those programs very easily modifiable and available, i do not see any reason for anyone to compile such a tremendous ammount of software. The only reason why you are justified to use this distribution in my eyes is if you're a:
Everyone else using it as a desktop distribution, just seems incompetent or very extremist about their software even thought the philosophy of gentoo is to have fun while using it. There's definitelly an elitism aspect to it.
To add insult to injury a lot of people use the phrase "Install Gentoo" simply as a way to bait people who don't know better to waste their time and turn them off from using linux altogether.
Nix is a tool that takes a unique approach to package management and system configuration. Learn how to make reproducible, declarative and reliable systems.
So what does it do diffrently? For starters, it uses the nix package manager, making installing software very diffrent than any other distribution. To install packages to your own system, you specify the changes in a .nix file that keeps all the configuration you make to it, so you can gi back to previous configurations. Cool right? Let's see what are the ideas behind the project.
If you're a developer of any kind, YES IT IS. There are MANY MORE THAN ENOUGH reasons for you to use NixOS as a developer. As an outside user though... It's not so appealing. The configuration has a very steep learning curve and people who LOVE nix need to understand that not everyone needs the features it provides. It's a very important distribution for building software for other distributions and itself.
From what i understand (and i realize this isn't enough to talk about the distribution as a whole), Guix System is an advanced distribution of the GNU operating system. It uses the Linux-libre kernel, and support for the Hurd is being worked on. As a GNU distribution, it is committed to respecting and enhancing the freedom of its users. As such, it adheres to the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines. It takes a lot of inspiration from both NixOS and Gentoo, and the main idea it promotes is backwards security, which i think is best explained via the youtube video provided above (routed through an invidious instance for your comfort and privacy).
What are the main ideas behind Guix you might ask?
Similarly to NixOS, It's an insanely important tool for programers and software developers alike, but has virtually no use for the average person, and let's admit it. Not every person who's tech savvy, must be a software developer. If you're a person who treats their programming very seriously and thinks of doing some good for the world, Guix is definitelly worth a try, even if it's a GNU project.