7 GNU Distribution

Guix comes with a distribution of the GNU system consisting entirely of free software¹³. The distribution can be installed on its own (see System Installation), but it is also possible to install Guix as a package manager on top of an installed GNU/Linux system (see Installation). To distinguish between the two, we refer to the standalone distribution as the Guix System Distribution, or GuixSD.

The distribution provides core GNU packages such as GNU libc, GCC, and Binutils, as well as many GNU and non-GNU applications. The complete list of available packages can be browsed on-line or by running guix package (see Invoking guix package):

guix package --list-available

Our goal has been to provide a practical 100% free software distribution of Linux-based and other variants of GNU, with a focus on the promotion and tight integration of GNU components, and an emphasis on programs and tools that help users exert that freedom.

Packages are currently available on the following platforms:

x86_64-linux

Intel/AMD x86_64 architecture, Linux-Libre kernel;

i686-linux

Intel 32-bit architecture (IA32), Linux-Libre kernel;

armhf-linux

ARMv7-A architecture with hard float, Thumb-2 and NEON, using the EABI hard-float ABI, and Linux-Libre kernel.

mips64el-linux

little-endian 64-bit MIPS processors, specifically the Loongson series, n32 application binary interface (ABI), and Linux-Libre kernel.

GuixSD itself is currently only available on i686 and x86_64.

For information on porting to other architectures or kernels, See Porting.

Building this distribution is a cooperative effort, and you are invited to join! See Contributing, for information about how you can help.