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0 pointsamelius3y ago0 comments

ML and GPUs are on HN's front page almost every day ...

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7 comments · 3 top-level

nextos3y ago· 3 in thread

You can use this channel to get non-GNU sanctioned software, including kernels and drivers: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix

Furthermore, you can install Nix in Guix: https://guix.gnu.org/packages/nix-2.5.1

behnamoh3y ago

then why not just install Nix in the first place??

ParetoOptimal3y ago

You prefer using guix but want a package Nix has already packaged and don't have the time and knowledge to package it yourself.

nextos3y ago

I use NixOS, but GuixSD users might find this option useful.

dan-robertson3y ago· 1 in thread

There are a bunch of things that come up regularly on HN that aren’t particularly relevant to the real world so I don’t think this logic is good. Though I think you are correct that ML is relevant to the real world. However when you wrote ‘the real world’ you didn’t mean the thing for which ML is relevant but rather ‘being a general purpose operating system that is useful [to software developers]’ and for this I think the lack of hardware-accelerated PyTorch isn’t great but I don’t think training/running ML models is particularly relevant to being a general purpose OS (even for software developers). I’m not sure it’s even relevant to ML practitioners as I would expect they’d be farming out training to a dedicated compute cluster.

One needs to jump through a bunch of hoops to get hardware-accelerated PyTorch on Apple’s latest computers. Does that mean they aren’t ready for the real world?

ameliusOP3y ago

I mean, to run the software developed by ML practitioners, you basically end up in dependency hell every time you try out something new. This is exactly where an autobuild/package system such as Guix is supposed to shine.

ML is also increasingly relevant for OSes, think OCR and speech recognition, but also painting programs. Image classification and segmentation are used in industrial systems; lots of ML happens on servers. And this is where Linux shines, and thus support from Guix would be great. Categorically excluding this group of GPU users is a mistake.

> One needs to jump through a bunch of hoops to get hardware-accelerated PyTorch on Apple’s latest computers. Does that mean they aren’t ready for the real world?

They are. But their packaging systems are not.

DrewADesign3y ago

So aren't articles about developers and work-life balance.

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