Subject: Re: [bug#77288] [PATCH 6/6] DRAFT news: Add entry about unprivileged guix-daemon on Guix System.

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2025 08:39:14 +0100

Hi Ludo.

Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> writes:
> "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]> skribis:
>> Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> writes:
>>> +Eventually running @command{guix-daemon} without root privileges may become
>>> +the default.")))
>>> +
>>
>> I dislike the word “may” in this last sentence.  How about “likely
>> will” or some such thing, even if we have not reviewed bugfreeness of
>> Linux here?
>
> Sure; I view “may” and “likely will” as synonymous, but maybe there are
> subtleties that escape me.
>

I had understood “likely” to be “probably”.  With more thinking and
Wiktionary reading, “likely” can also mean “plausibly”, though not in
this context, I think.

The word “may” you had used means “possibly”, which sounds
indecisive/uncommitted and if even Guix does not know yet if rootless is
a good idea, how should a news-reading user know?  I thought you wrote
it for this purpose, because distros had been wary of USERNS some time
ago, or something.

This is why I translated to German as „vielleicht” (maybe).

Apparently some people want to banish the word “may” for its suppossed
ambiguity; it can mean “possibly” and “have permission to”, according to
Wiktionary.  This subtlety is news to me; I think context makes clear
what “may” means.

But perhaps it really is better to use unambiguous adverbs, adjectives
like “probably”.

In case you write this “probably” or “likely”, I would translate in
German as „wahrscheinlich” (probably).

>> Can you tell foreign distro users about their rootless options in the
>> news, too?
>
> This news item is specifically about Guix System (announced upfront),
> but I guess we can add a sentence toward the end.  (Thing is, the
> situation will be simpler on foreign distros: we won’t support switching
> between privileged and unprivileged, so either you get one or the
> other.)
>

Yes, please!  That sentence in parentheses explains the situation, but
needs rewording for etc/news.scm of course.

> Thanks for the comments and for the translation!
>
> Ludo’.

:)

I also now notice it is impossible to translate

info guix --index-search=guix-service-type

as

info guix.de --index-search=guix-service-type

although

info guix.fr --index-search=guix-service-type

works fine.  No idea why; both texi files look the same here.  But since
the rootless documentation is not translated yet anyway, please leave

info guix --index-search=guix-service-type

Regards,
Florian