Re: [H-source-users] [PATCH 6/6] Add Guix system with GNU/Hurd to the distro list

[bill-auger]

i would object to this change, as it is - i think it is heading
in the wrong direction - merely using a different kernel, does
not make a different distro - guix+linux-libre or guix+hurd is
the same distro in every meaningful way

the important information to capture is the kernel itself, and
which module is in use by each hardware; because that is what
actually determines the essential question of: "does this
hardware work with free software?" - the distro names are purely
informative - the change we should be working toward is to make
linux-libre, the debian kernel, and hurd as the canonically
recognized kernels, rather than having that information as an
arbitrary text field (or simply deduced from the "Guix+Hurd"
distro name), and to start white-listing kernel modules in
the same way (and hurd modules, if there is any difference in
those sets) - AFAIK, the kernel modules (or whatever hurd calls
them) are the same ones taken from linux

like the point i raised on the other thread WRT there being 3
distinct entries which could represent a debian unstable system,
an arbitrary change like this one is not so obviously
problematic, if you assume that people will be entering all the
information manually on the web, or that people will not want to
search/sort by a canonical kernel or distro name - but more
importantly, from the perspective of the h-client, which can
help to normalize rogue entries with sane constraints, it is not
clear how to handle these arbitrary additions - indeed, it
suggests that we should not - but instead, to re-think the
database schema, to capture the important information better, and
possibly to relax the less important information

eg: how to programatically distinguish a "guix+linux-libre"
system, from a "guix+hurd" system (or from a guix system with
upstream linux installed, for that matter) - as it is, i learned
that is not possible to distinguish _any_ guix system from any
other distro which happens to have guix installed - its one
thing to push that knowledge out to the interface (relying on
the user's knowledge and honesty) when that is the only way to
capture the information; but its much better to do in code,
whatever can be done programatically - its the very reason why
we have these machines; but this change and the multiple debian
duplicates prevent the machine from doing what it does best, and
instead prefers the user's arbitrary manual entry, an the
inherent loss or corruption of information that implies

we should be thinking of ways to make the important data less
general (such as not allowing users to enter the kernel module
information arbitrarily, but letting the software determine
that, or via a select/options widget on the website),
and to make the less important data more general (such as
un-constraining the distro names, by adding an arbitrary "other"
distro class and a text field on the website to enter
"my-distro-name", but presenting all currently white-listed
distros as a select/options widget)