GNU Guix package manager gets new Beta release

Aug 3, 2016 22:21 GMT  ·  By

Ludovic Courtès reports on behalf of the GNU Guix project, an open-source package management system for the GNU system, on the availability of the Guix System Distribution (GuixSD) 0.11.0.

It appears that this is the first time we write here something about the Guix System Distribution, so we feel obliged to inform our readers that GuixSD is an advanced distribution of the GNU system powered by the Linux-libre kernel and using GNU Guix as the default package manager, thus respecting the user's freedom.

The Guix System Distribution 0.11.0 release is here today, August 3, 2016, to add a great number of improvements and new features, among which we can mention the latest Beta milestone of the GNU Guix application, support for RAID devices, compression support for the "guix publish" function used by users to share their store with others.

"It is a pleasure to announce the new beta release of GNU Guix and GuixSD, version 0.11.0," says Ludovic Courtès in the official release announcement. "It’s been 4 months since the previous release, during which 70 people contributed code and packages, representing 2,119 commits."

Additionally, GuixSD 0.11.0 introduces a bunch of new system services, including but not limited to a dictionary service named Dico, an SSH (Secure Shell) service named Dropbear, and a mcron service. A new infrastructure for whole-system tests has been implemented as well in Guix System Distribution 0.11.0.

678 package updates, 484 new packages

Among other new features implemented in the Guix System Distribution 0.11.0 release, we can mention the addition of an Emacs mode that users can benefit from to browse package definition locations, multiple improvements to all the tool sets, as well as several bug fixes and enhancements to the manual.

Last but not least, GuixSD 0.11.0 addresses several bit-reproducibility issues, updates a total of 678 packages and adds 484 new ones. The distribution is now powered by the recently released Linux-libre 4.7 kernel and uses the latest GNU C Library (GLibc) 2.23. Download Guix System Distribution 0.11.0 right now via our website and check out the release notes for all the juicy details.