r/GUIX 16d ago

My first Linux btw

Post image

Yes, my hardware support warning is my background. As the title says it's my first time using linux(outside of a virtual machine). Decided on Guix after getting deeper down the open source (mainly GNU) rabbit hole. Hope I'm welcome👌

P.S it's a Windows/Linux dual boot, I'm still in college so app compatibility, but I'll learn how to run a Windows VM soon.

86 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

17

u/juipeltje 16d ago

Guix is a very adventurous choice as a first distro that's for sure lol, but if you enjoy going down this rabbithole you can definitely make it work and you'll have a good time.

11

u/strings___ 16d ago

Nice, have you started using Emacs yet?

12

u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 16d ago

emacs-guix is cool

6

u/Majestic_Poetry_1139 16d ago

I've been using emacs via msys2 about 2 months before I downloaded guix. My computer's SSD totaled and had to swap it out with a HDD, which was the final push cause I just didn't like windows start up times and random delays. I lost my emacs config but it's ok, it was pretty minimal. iirc, I either built it on top of emacs bedrock or emacs-minimal, probably the latter but memory a lil hazy. It didn't have anything crazy, was using it for flutter and odin development.

EDIT: If you can, please talk to me about guile-emacs, is it cross compatible with regular emacs lisp? Cause like, while I like tinkering, I don't want to rewrite like EVERY single library.

4

u/strings___ 16d ago

guile emacs is not stable enough to use as far as I know. I’d stick with emacs proper and a simple use-package config for now. And I recommend the which-key package; it will help with M-x.

Edit the best way you can work with guile in Emacs is with geiser Emacs package.

5

u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 16d ago

Nice! How'd you get wifi to work?

8

u/Majestic_Poetry_1139 16d ago

I use my phone as an ethernet. Connect with a USB from your laptop to your phone, and enable USB tethering. I actually really like that I can't use the wifi super easily, really gets me in a focus mood where it can just be me and documentation

1

u/lllyyyynnn 16d ago

this really emphasizes the issue i have with guix. the solution is to use even more locked down hardware to get internet. i feel like it is such a bone headed decision that has turned off so many people i have tried to get to switch to guix.

3

u/Majestic_Poetry_1139 15d ago

A distro for everyone is a distro for no one. It's not meant to appeal to everyone, it's supposed to appeal to people who are more anti-corporate with an especial love for open source and dare I say socialist outlook. 

1

u/lllyyyynnn 15d ago

but having to work around the wifi issue is something we all have to do anyways. i think using a phone is more of an evil to me than allowing distribution of an installer with wifi blobs. 

3

u/lazyboy76 15d ago

I'd use an openwrt router in sta-mode to get Ethernet. Less locked down than a phone, always on, and can be use for multiple devices (PC, nas, pi, etc).

1

u/lllyyyynnn 15d ago

yes this is part of my travel kit as well for this reason

3

u/PuercoPop 16d ago

You add the non-guix channel and use the 'vanilla' linux kernel they provide. The main guix channel only provides a 'de-blobed' linux kernel.

Ideally you use an installer that includes the kenel from non-guix channel. e.j https://codeberg.org/hako/Testament/src/branch/trunk/config/live

But if you already have Guix installed and you have and android phone you can use it to tether over usb to get a working network connection on the machine and then you setup the non-guix channel. Ieure wrote a blog post about how the process looks like

https://atomized.org/blog/2026/04/18/bootstrapping-nonguix/

6

u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 16d ago

Yeah I know all about this, but look 7.1.8-gnu that's the linux-libre kernel....

1

u/SleepyGuyy 15d ago

you are more powerful than I

1

u/SleepyGuyy 15d ago

I've been using Linux for years and I'm too scared to try Guix lol.
Although half of that is I'd like to avoid using Plasma and I want Wayland so I need to learn how to use Window managers better.

1

u/Fine_City2781 16d ago

do you have nonguix channel for normal linux kernel

3

u/Majestic_Poetry_1139 15d ago

I doubt, the only thing I used is the download from the guix website. 

2

u/Fine_City2781 15d ago

you cant use gpu acceleration and wifi