Hello, I’m Linux user since ’99 and was using (open)Suse, Gentoo and Arch with Xfce most of the time. Had few shot excursions into the world of Net/Open/Free/PC-BSD, but returned to Linux since some time I use Debian (Sid) and settled on GNOME3 desktop.
Now, in order to bring some more stability and possibly less admin-work with both my machines (desktop, netboo) as well as with relatives/friends I’m considering to switch to eith GuixSD or Nixos… Guix is attractive considering its usage of standard general programming language in comparison with NixOS’s DSL. However, despite of being glad that GuixSD is dedicated to free-only software I have some questions in regard before deciding to which distribution to switch… I understand that for my Netbook I should probably buy new wifi USB dongle with free-firmware support and similar thing in order to get working Bluetooth. However, I’m concerned with my desktop machine where I have Gigabyte UDP55 (1166 socket) motherboards and it seems that there is need for firmware-realtek package which provides rtl_nic/rtl8168d-2.fw. So, a) can anyone confirm what is the situation in regard to this firmware in GuixSD? b) after having some unpleasant experiences with btrfs’ performance after I did perform some video renderin and my machine had higher workload, swap file was activated and it took long time to settle down afte rendering was done, now I’c considering to either use XFS or ZFS (ZoL), so wonder what is situation in regard of support for those filesystems (atm, it seems that none of the two are included)? c) I use old ATI graphics card and I’m happy with open-source driver, but have need for two legacy Windows app which I use via wine and use one proprietaty application for my scanner (VueScan) which is GTK app, so hopefully it should run without any problem, but have occasional need to use Skype (my friends/relatives have more needs), so wonder what can one do in regard to apps like Skype and/or Viber, Gitter etc.? d) For remote troubleshooting of my relatives/friends machine atm I use TeamViewer which is easy for them, but I hope that something better (aka open-source) can be deployed instead, so those are practically all concerns I have in regard. Of course, I understand that Guix(SD) is younger and does not have as many packages as NixOS, but, otoh, I see that GuiXSD development is very active. Any advice what would be more suitable distro for my needs from the perspective of Guix(SD) users? Sincerely, Gour -- As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.
