Re: Communication and Design at Guix

[Ricardo Wurmus]

L p R n d n <address@hidden> writes:

> Guix is ...
>
> ... a package and system manager. (A seen previously, system manager is
> too wide)
> ... a package manager and machine administrator.
> ... a package and machine administrator.
> ... a package and environment manager.
>
> WDYT? If anyone has an idea, don't be shy :)

“administrator” is generally understood to be a person (as in “system
administrator”).  “environment manager” is just as vague as “system
manager”, in my opinion — “everything is the environment!”.  It only
makes sense to people who are already familiar with the term
“environment” in a computing context.

That’s the advantage the word “package manager” has — it’s already a
well-established term, for better or worse.

> I'd like to keep the "package manager" part as it'll probably ring a
> bell to any linux user and helps understand the not so familiar part
> (system/environment dealing).

Right, that’s what I meant.
We are underselling Guix, though, if we keep referring to it as a
“package manager”, because people’s familiarity with other package
managers may make them think in smaller terms.

FWIW, I’m with Ludo here with regards to “Guix” as the “single brand”.
I disagree with this part that George wrote:

> "Guix System" is a "bad" name for "GuixSD." Why? Because a new user's
> first expectation is for "Guix system" to refer to the whole of Guix,
> which we want to call "Guix" (referred to as "Guix Brand" below).

In my experience “… system” is not generally used to describe a tool’s
full set of features.  I think “Guix System” is just the right term for
everything that Guix generates or operates on with the “guix system” set
of commands.  “GuixOS” is, in my opinion, a pretty terrible name (I’m
also not a fan of all the other “…OS” names out there) and it needlessly
keeps the confusion between “Guix, the tool” and “Guix, the system”
alive.

--
Ricardo