I have not maintained any packages before but I am very interested in learning how, I shall look into this.
The easiest way to learn this is to download the Guix source code and look in the gnu/packages directory to see how other programs are packaged and look at the official packaging guides/build system options/guix import options/guix refresh (updates package definitions)/contributor guides (if you want to set up the local Guix repo copy more correctly) in the documentation - gnu/packages also has certain files for running guix import in if a program you’re contributing needs dependencies that can be guix-imported. Simple things are easy to package, so are binaries if you’re just doing it for yourself and need something quickly (I think nonguix has a binary build system specifically for that as well), it’s programs that have a ton of libraries (especially with Python and Node.js) that are the problem since there’s no internet during the build process so running the project package manager won’t work.
I vaguely remember this was the originally used in Hurd? if so that is cool.
Yes, Guix System works with Hurd as well although I don’t see any reason to use it since it’s in an incomplete state and there are more interesting OS projects being developed like RedoxOS or Genode.
I have been wanting to set up upasfs this may be the push I need to finally get around to doing that.
Guix Home (and Guix System) has a services section in the documentation that has configuration options for certain things including email so I would suggest looking at that. (The Guix Home services also work on foreign distros.)
I will try installing it as a package manager
That’s the best approach to learning Guix IMO, especially using Guix Home. Once you have it fully set up on your current distro with Guix Home, you can copy your configuration to a Guix System install later on and replicate your current user setup really quickly. You can also return to your distro package manager quickly if you decide you don’t like it.
One other thing I forgot to mention is that Guix works weirdly with non-POSIX shells like fish and nushell so you might need to modify the configuration to automatically add the necessary environment variables or it will end up being stuck on an outdated Guix version randomly which will cause weird issues when you install/search packages or run guix pull.
The genocide is happening under Democratic control through the Biden/Harris administration and the biggest crackdowns on protests are happening in blue states like California and New York possibly even more so than red states like Texas. There is no “kind of” about Harris’s stance on genocide.