First guix impressions

[goglosh]

Hello.
I am currently a new user of the GuixSD system. I am also a rather new
user of the whole *NIX familly. I have been using it for less than a
week, with no few surprises.
I write this to lay down in an organized (sort of) manner my thoughts
and first impressions about the system and those issues I've had most
trouble with. Along with friendly suggestions. I hope it's helpful,
and, anyway, I'd be happy to put together some documentation given a
few pointers if needed. Sorry if I am still inexperienced with the
whole *nix thing.
Alright, first the good things. I really liked the fact that you can
instantiate system configurations (as in `guix system reconfigure`)
and also that regular users can build up their environment and that it
is quite 'safe', system-wise. There is one thing that should probably
change, though. When I install a package using root, I usuallly expect
the package to be available system-wide, so that any user has access
to it. This would make it easier to install a package just once for
all users. After all, that's the purpose of root, rather than as a
user in it's own right (at least, that's how I see it).
I know this can be done with a system declaration. But of course,
there is a difference between setting up a whole system and putting up
a package.
Another astonishing (and confusing) feature, which, think of it, is
sort of a consequence of the previous issue, is the lack of a global
configuration directory. Sure, there is /etc/, but, at least in my
case, setting up /etc/slim.config (a concrete example of course) would
just get ignored. Again, I am thinking of root as a sort of parent
environment for the userspace, which all users should be able to
inherit and override. A Super-user, if you don't mind.
I am aware that these changes would require a change in the design,
still there could be a sort of compromise.
And again, the applications usually have their own config files (their
/etc/ /share/, etc) *within* their directories in /gnu/store/, which
is a read-only filesystem. I'm not complaining about read-only
/gnu/store, I understand it's crucial. But then, ~/.guix-profile is
also read-only. As I write this I notice that it is actually a bunch
of symlinks all leading to /gnu/store.
See, what I would expect, being this a sort of nix system, is that I
could also have configurations for each file, which I should be able
to modify. Probably I should be able to have dedicated /share/ or
/etc/ for each user and even one system-wide.
I too haven't really read the dmd manual, and I will do so right
now.