Re: GNU/Guix

[Kaz Kylheku (gnu-misc-discuss)]

On 2020-02-27 17:25, I wrote:
> On 2020-02-27 13:46, ams@gnu.org wrote:
> > I was wondering if it would be better to call GUIX GNU/GUIX.
> > I was
> >    reading the wikipediea page of GUIX and there is a large dispute
> >    over its naming in the project.
>
> Are you saying that this dispute is described in the wikipedia page?
>
> I'm looking at this, the English one:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Guix
>
> I can't seem to find anything about the naming dispute in that,
> or its Talk page.

Okay, I think I found an external link pointing to mailing list
discussions. And also a key subtlety is missing in this thread:

Quote:

"The development of GNU Guix is intertwined with Guix System
(until Guix 1.0: Guix System Distribution [GuixSD])[7], a complete
installable GNU system using the Linux-libre kernel and
GNU Shepherd init system).[8][9]"

This reveals a subtlety that is not emphasized in ams's
original message above.

Namely, there is Guix, the program, whose full name is
GNU Guix, and then there is the system distribution built with it
which is being called Guix System.

But that also seems to go by the name "GNU Guix System"
if you search around; where is the problem?

[7] gives an external link to a January 2015 mailing list
discussion about naming. The discussion seems mostly
rational and productive.

In the mailing list debate, "GNU Software Distribution" was proposed.
Courtès immediately liked it, showing that he's not attached
to the word "Guix".

Stallman chimed in with the obvious objection (not his only one):
there isn't necessarily just one GNU distribution.

Courtès then makes a bizarre reply to Stallman:

  RMS > * It implies this is the one and only "software distribution"
  RMS > that is connected with GNU.

  LC> That is not true.  When we say “GNU Guile”, we
  LC> specify that Guile is developed by the GNU project;
  LC> the same holds here.

???

The word "software" (incredibly vast category of stuff made of bits)
and "Guile" (one specific Scheme implementation) are not comparable!

When we say "GNU Guile" we do in fact refer to exactly one thing;
there is no other "GNU Guile". It is not "a GNU Guile",
and it is not a GNU version of a Guile language that exists
in other versions like a BSD Guile or POSIX Guile or something.

A term like "GNU Software Distribution" is in interpreted
the same way as "GNU Guile": there is just one.

When Stallman, a native English speaker, brilliant hacker and
cogent thinker starts off a sentence with "It implies this
is ...", and you think that "This is not true" is a suitable
reply, maybe you should think again.