Had a VM GUIX "system" (really I think its more of package manager
overlay) for a while (18 months ago) but encountered some
problems. The main feature AFAICS is that it maintains the state of
the system and packages all very cleanly via it's own nix build system
which is like a snapshot of everything.
The sell is that it's very recoverable - in theory you can rebuild
from a single file. That's very appealing for VMs that need to be
moved about.
Unfortunately I needed a couple of things that were available only
through apt. Now, Guix said it was perfectly happy to mix package
management, (a bit like mixing pkg and ports in BSD) - but don't do
that. It all went horribly wrong with confusion over which binaries
were running at any time and when I did try to port it, it broke.
I like lispy things so will give Guix another try one day, but it
needs you to fully embrace its philosophy and no half measures.
The sell is that it's very recoverable - in theory you can rebuild from a single file. That's very appealing for VMs that need to be moved about.
Unfortunately I needed a couple of things that were available only through apt. Now, Guix said it was perfectly happy to mix package management, (a bit like mixing pkg and ports in BSD) - but don't do that. It all went horribly wrong with confusion over which binaries were running at any time and when I did try to port it, it broke.
I like lispy things so will give Guix another try one day, but it needs you to fully embrace its philosophy and no half measures.