GNU30/GNU Guix
GNU Guix is a package management system that lets you verify a certain set of binaries came from a certain set of sources, amongst many other advantages. You can watch this video about how Guix is the computing freedom deployment tool.
Join the #guix channel of the Freenode IRC network for a Guix hackathon on Sep. 28-29! The official hackathon starts at 1:30pm EST (see what this is in your timezone), but developers are around IRC all the time. At least David Thompson will also be hacking locally in Cambridge.
Don't know how to use IRC? Just go to https://webchat.freenode.net and enter your prefered username in the "Nickname:" field and "#guix" in the "Channels:" field.
Tasks will include packaging your favorite software, hunting bugs, and improving stand-alone builds of the Guix-based GNU system. This is accessible to anyone with experience with GNU/Linux packages; people with experience in Scheme may find additional things to work on.
GNU Guix is a purely functional package manager for the GNU system, and a distribution thereof.
Dependable. In addition to standard package management features, Guix supports transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, per-user profiles, and garbage collection. Read more...
Hackable. It provides Guile Scheme APIs, including high-level embedded domain-specific languages (EDSLs), to describe how packages are built and composed. Read more...
Liberating. A user-land free software distribution for GNU/Linux comes as part of Guix. Read more...
Guix is based on the Nix package manager.
> I [David Thompson] will be physically present at the hackathon in Cambridge. Most Guix developers are not in the US, but it would be great if you could find interested people in Cambridge. > I have experience with Guile, but I haven't done much work with package > management systems before. That’s not a problem at all. Guix has a wonderful EDSL, so even people without programming experience should be able to package things. I highly recommend to check these slides [1]. > Would I still be useful? Yes! Everyone can help: designers, translators, documentation writers, etc. So bring a friend! > Is there anything that you would recommend I do to prepare for this > weekend besides install Guix and poke around? Try to write a package recipe for a simple program. You might want to start with the one that’s already present in ‘gnu/packages’, so you could check yourself. Then you could package something that you use daily. This talk [2] (slides [3]) provides a good overview and answers some popular questions. (For instance, it talks about supported build systems.) Since you know Guile, you could also help with command line tools. (Ask on the guix-devel list if you’re interested.
