Subject: Re: [bug#58357] [Patch staging ] doc add a recommended system in 'Hardware Considerations'

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2022 11:55:34 +0200

Hmm Joshua, recommending these thinkpads may be good or may be bad.

Off-the-shelf hardware too often is at odds with freedom, and newcomers
underestimate how hard it is to find hardware.

Joshua Branson via Guix-patches via <[email-masked]> writes:
> * doc/guix.texi (Hardware Considerations):  add a reccomended system and a
> short commentary about graphics cards.

For graphics cards <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/36786> “Warn of AMD GPUs
unusable with Guix System” is related.  As Ricardo said there, we do
point to h-node.

> +@cindex Graphics Cards, hardware support
> +Graphics cards have a hard time running properly under linux-libre,
> +because those drivers usually require propritary firmware, which
> +linux-libre removes.  Users should avoid brand new graphics cards.
> +Older Kepler Nvidia graphics cards and integrated Intel GPUs work the
> +best.

It would be bad to make recommendations that end up not working.  I have
doubts if new Intel GPUs is a safe advise.

> +For the best Guix System experience, Guix developers recommend an X86_64
> +system with at least 2GB of RAM.  An old Thinkpad in the T or X series
> +is usually a good choice.  If you decide to run Guix System on ARM or
> +Power architectures, then please use a system with a 64 bit CPU.

IMHO ARM and Power need not be mentioned so explicitly.  On the website,
there is no Guix System download link for ARM except the Pinebook image
(I don’t own a Pinebook and can’t test that).  Guix on ARM works well,
now that rsvg works on ARM.

And once there is a new release, bordeaux will be enabled by default,
then Guix on ARM will be much better even by default.

Regards,
Florian