Re: Guix and The OS name?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Taylan Ulrich Bayirli/Kammer <address@hidden> skribis:

> address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
>
>> So the distribution is called “the GNU system”, or “GNU”.
>
> Hrm, isn't Guix also the name of the distro?
>
> https://gnu.org/s/guix/ says that "GNU Guix is a purely functional
> package manager for the GNU system, and a distribution thereof."  And
> then the Guix logo has the "The GNU System" subtitle, and the page is
> about both the package manager and the distro, etc.

Yeah, there’s some ambiguity here.

> I suppose it makes sense to use the more specific name Guix when
> differentiating between GNU/Linux distros, talking about this specific
> project, etc., although the resulting distro is also *the* GNU distro.

I see what you mean.

OTOH I find it important to insist on the fact that GNU is a concrete
operating system.  The fact that the “Download GNU” button on gnu.org
points to a mere list of GNU/Linux distribution isn’t helping the image
and strength of the GNU project, and cohesion within the project.

This is why I think we must build the actual GNU system, as initially
envisioned.

This is a conclusion I and others reached a few years ago at the GHM and
on gnu-system-discuss [0].  Similar motivations led to GSRC earlier.

Thanks,
Ludo’.

[0] See the thread that starts at
    
<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-system-discuss/2012-03/msg00000.html>
    and continues the following months.