Re: GNOME

[Mark H Weaver]

Hi Raghav,

"Raghav Gururajan" <address@hidden> writes:

> Does GNOME meta-package in Guix, corresponds to [1] or [2] or mix of both?
>
> [1] https://packages.debian.org/stable/metapackages/gnome
> [2] https://packages.debian.org/stable/metapackages/gnome-core

Guix doesn't currently have a package that corresponds to either of
those.  Our 'gnome' package aims to include only the GNOME core desktop,
whereas Debian's 'gnome-core' also adds "other applications integrating
with GNOME and Debian".  For example, Debian's 'gnome-core' includes
Firefox or Chromium, although neither of them are part of GNOME.

Another important difference is that the 'gnome-core' package on Debian
automatically arranges to install and launch the various system services
that are needed for GNOME to function, whereas on Guix, an installed
package is merely a static object on the file system that cannot take
any action on its own.

To install the GNOME core desktop on a Guix system, you need to include
(service gnome-desktop-service-type) in your OS configuration, which
also arranges to add the 'gnome' package to your system profile.

So, I would say that the closest analogue to Debian's 'gnome-core'
package in Guix is not a package at all, but rather, our
'gnome-desktop-service-type'.

       Mark