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> An old employer used this instead of Docker for managing build distribution. Can the Guix stuff be used the same way?

Yes, and, Guix is actually a "meta" package manager that understands other packages like Python PIPs and Node NPM packages, so you can define all of that in one build config file.

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Wait, this is a big deal. Will it work with any package manager or only things that it explicitly supports?

One thing that has become a persistent headache for me with Nix is trying to get reproducible builds with Julia, due to the fact that the package manager doesn't have direct integration with Nix, and `nix build` purposefully restricts network access. I'd happily move to Guix if they have an elegant way to deal with this.

Since it's all just Guile Scheme, a full programming language, you can extend it in any way you want, and use the Scheme libraries you want, doing whatever network access you please.

The builder is sandboxed, the whole model goes out the window otherwise.

Also, I really doubt Guix moves the needle much here. It can't make Julia magically more reproducible without effectively doing the same techniques you'd have to use in Nix.

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