Re: Guix (and Guile's) promise, and how to (hopefully) get there

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Divya Ranjan <divya@subvertising.org> writes:

> Similarly, I would suggest the thoughts on improving Guix/Guile to
> look at aspects of the project where we might not be doing the best
> job, or if we can take different steps in terms of reachout. But as an
> user and contributor, please don’t take steps to separate Guix from
> GNU. It’ll be a considerable loss too both the projects.

Some of the parts of GNU that really matter to us as Guix are presented
at <https://gnu.tools>.  The philosophy that was thought up and
manifested in the early GNU project is what continues to inform our
technical decisions today: e.g. no distinction between admins and users,
making software freedom a practical rather than hypothetical freedom,
giving people [not just developers] the tools to take charge of their
software needs, etc.

Those of us who have had the displeasure of dealing with the
*organization* that is called GNU (for example in their role as
maintainers), however, find it hamstrung by authoritarian governance,
dominated by a few loud cranks who are given limitless influence in all
internal discussions, and see their work devalued by tonedeaf statements
and actions.

I'm someone who came to Guix because of Scheme and GNU, but as the years
went on I stayed in *spite* of the association with the entity that GNU
is now -- luckily, Guix (and with the select links to hackers in other
GNU-affiliated projects) is a much better embodiment of the early GNU
philosophy than GNU itself.  That the GNU-internal mailing list that
contributed significantly to this shift has no public archives is both
an immeasurable blessing and a curse.

-- 
Ricardo