When comparing GNU Guix vs Chromium OS, the Slant community recommends GNU Guix for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” GNU Guix is ranked 58th while Chromium OS is ranked 89th. The most important reason people chose GNU Guix is:
A method which works across languages and provides a reproducible programming environment.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Can setup a shell which has exactly the defined libraries available
A method which works across languages and provides a reproducible programming environment.
Pro Can always roll back to a safe state
Guix creates new profile generations for each operation. If anything goes wrong, a simple --roll-back gets you immediately back to the previous, working, generation. Because it is a purely functional package management system, generations don't affect each other, so you're back to the exact same state as before : still working.
Pro Can create independent packages
Guix pack creates packages which do not need Guix to be run.
Pro No side effects when building packages
Guix is a purely functional package management system. This means that the act of building a package does not have side effects, such as destructively updating or deleting files that may be used by other packages.
Pro Can build containers right-away, from docker to tarballs
See guix pack --help and here.
Pro Easy to add your own packages
The clean and declarative syntax makes it easy to define new packages by using an existing one as an example.
Pro Doesn't require root privileges
Normal users can install packages on a Guix-enabled system, or even run their own Guix instance if the system isn't Guix-enabled.
Pro Safe and requires little to no maintenant
Since you only have the browser, you cannot install applications (outside Chrome Apps which are decently protected by their limited API and the Chrome Web Store). This means no harmful virus, and also nearly no way you can screw your system. Everything will just work.
Pro Minimalistic interface
Chromium's system UI uses as little screen space as possible by combining apps and standard web pages into a minimal tab strip: While existing operating systems have web tabs and native applications in two separate strips, Chromium OS combines these, giving access to everything from one strip. The tab is the equivalent of a desktop application's title bar; the frame containing the tabs is a simple mechanism for managing sets of those applications and pages.
Pro Lightweight
Because Chromium OS is designed for users who spend most of their computer time on the Web, it is intended for use in computers with little local storage and fast boot-up times.
Cons
Con Updates take a long time
It's gotten better over time but both updating Guix itself and updating the installed packages can take a long time.
Con Cannot handle filetypes that have different semantics across different versions
While the functional approach that Guix takes is great for sandboxing binary artifacts of packages, it seriously lacks any power in handling configuration files or user data. It's difficult to upgrade and downgrade files where semantics and syntax can change between versions.
Con Google
Possibly harms your privacy.
Con Made for developers
ChromiumOS is mainly made for development, so there exist no official install images and you have to build it from source or use third party images like Arnold's or the waterfall images.
Con No auto-upgrade (unlike Chrome OS)
Chrome OS auto-upgrade the system, but Chromium OS does not. It's possible that they're thinking about adding that feature from the design doc.