You can use Guix as a package manager on top of practically any variant of the GNU system. By design it is completely independent of the libraries that your system provides.
At work I'm using the same binaries on a cluster with CentOS 6 and on workstations running a mix of Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS 7, etc.
GuixSD ("Guix System Distribution") is the variant of the GNU system where the principles of Guix are extended to the operating system, but you don't have to use it if all you want is play with the package manager.
If you are into Lisp you'll feel right at home with extending Guix. If you don't care for Lisp you might at least find the command line interface to be a little easier to understand than that of Nix, but really: that's a personal preference.
At work I'm using the same binaries on a cluster with CentOS 6 and on workstations running a mix of Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS 7, etc.
GuixSD ("Guix System Distribution") is the variant of the GNU system where the principles of Guix are extended to the operating system, but you don't have to use it if all you want is play with the package manager.
The easiest way to get started is to download "GNU Guix 0.13.0 Binary" for your architecture and follow the instructions at http://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Binary-Ins....
If you are into Lisp you'll feel right at home with extending Guix. If you don't care for Lisp you might at least find the command line interface to be a little easier to understand than that of Nix, but really: that's a personal preference.