Matt <m...@excalamus.com> writes:
> > I'm not connected with Guix with any way - a mere enthusiast and
> > observer.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean. Being excited about something and taking
> the time to observe it, like listening to music, is a connection,
> right?
I mentioned because ultimately the final word isn't mine :)
> I'm curious, what makes you feel not connected with Guix?
I feel connected "philosophically" as a (basic) user, but not as a
contributor. Guix, by itself, is a complex system. Honestly, I suck at
using Guile in a project of this scale (no, I don't think the
documentation is poor). I have some understanding in Emacs and
slime/common lisp systems, but I still need to dive into geiser. There
are difficulties of other sorts as well. This is a Unix system and that
fact alone requires knowledge and experience. I assume that most core
contributors are/were involved in other efforts such as Debian, Arch,
Gentoo, etc. Besides experience in "system administration" and HPC.
I don't know how many people in the community have
non-CS/Unix/programming backgrounds so I share some personal thoughts
below. It's not that I want to share my life, but it might resonate
with the experiences of others.
My background is in theoretical physics and pure maths. I never cared
about computers or computation, until I had to find a job circa 2018. I
landed on a wind energy company which owns a supercomputer (running
GNU/Linux of course), and without me realising, I was being "forced" to
be a software developer. I had to learn a lot and fast. Soon, I
understood that the bottleneck on the success of a given project isn't
in the lack of domain-specific/scientific knowledge, but in the lack of
robust (software) tools and "software knowledge" in general. Most
"scientists" think: "these IT/programmers can't do their work properly".
This division ("scientists" and "programmers") is toxic. Yes, it's VERY
hard to find people who do both well. Guix a step towards tearing this
wall apart for good. It's not by chance that Guix has a strong presence
on HPC. (Yes, it's hell to depend on an admin to install stuff). It's
interesting to note that the effort comes from the "programmers" side.
I think the bottleneck on Guix's world domination is precisely because
"scientists" generally make little effort in that regard. It's hard to
make "non-sexy" things look sexy. Go and tell a "data-scientist" about
reproducible builds. Good luck.
It's ok if things are overwhelming and hard. Things eventually click
and start to make sense.
--
André A. Gomes
"Free Thought, Free World"
