Update: Thank you all for your kind and quick responses! I installed Void and antiX and cruised around in them a little. I ended up defaulting back to Artix in the end. The hardware issues with the NIC seem to have gotten resolved. Whatever toxicity and bigotry is present among their larger demographic, I’m going to spread as much light and love as possible. That is, until I switch OS again. 🤣
I have literally never whined about distros before. I went through some Debian based ones, some Arch based one and also installed a base version of Gentoo.
I am most fond of Arch, but after trying Artix, I found that I’m more comfortable with OpenRC as init and process management.
In addition to the latest Artix making my NIC unrecognized by the OS, the Artix forums also seem to house at least some transphobia. This is as good as any opportunity for me to finally ask the question to the world wide web:
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T480 on which I want to use mpv to play video. What Linux flavor do you recommend for a non desktop setup? I looked briefly at Slackware, but it seemed somewhat prepackaged, as opposed to configured by me.
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Devuan and Peppermint Devuan edition are good ones. These basically are Debian but you can use OpenRC.
I don’t recommend Alpine, it is a non-GNU Linux and was not developed for desktop/workstation usage, so you might encounter undocumented issues.
The closest thing to Artix is Gentoo, a DIY distro with OpenRC, but it is for the real geeks.
Arch (based) - if you like to customize every detail of your OS
Nixos - if you like to customize every detail of your OS and you are tired of breaking your system constantly
PopOS - if you would like to stop customizing your system and want to get used to great defaults
Mint - you just want things to work
CachyOS or Bazzite - if you want to play games
I am most fond of Arch
But what is it that you like about Arch in the first place?
I found that I’m more comfortable with OpenRC as init and process management.
Like, do you want to limit your options to distros that are well supported by OpenRC? Or, is this simply a preference kind of thing?
the Artix forums also seem to house at least some transphobia
Do you want to engage in distro-specific forums or was your engagement in there mostly out of necessity?
as opposed to configured by me.
Excellent, so you’re a builder/tinkerer that prefers a clean slate to work from.
But what is it that you like about Arch in the first place? The ability to keep it small and customize from there. Going basically kernel + base (which includes some packages I remove afterwards anyway).
Like, do you want to limit your options to distros that are well supported by OpenRC? Or, is this simply a preference kind of thing? I’m not well versed enough in OpenRC to understand what a distro that has “bad” support for it looks like, but I did find it easy to understand it’s layout/directories and the syntax of its scripts.
Do you want to engage in distro-specific forums or was your engagement in there mostly out of necessity? I was investigating whether a certain thread had been closed to the public, requiring sign-up, or not.
Excellent, so you’re a builder/tinkerer that prefers a clean slate to work from. Yes. Litterally, give me CLI and I’ll take it from there. xD
Alright, excellent. Thank you for the reply!
So, IIUC, you want a clean slate. Furthermore, you want plenty of tinkerability. And, finally, OpenRC enjoys a preference.
Still, I want to limit our search (for now) to (relatively) upstream distros on which OpenRC is known to work pretty well. We have to start our search from somewhere and this seems to be the most sensible starting point at this point.
If you’ve dismissed Artix, that basically leaves us (in alphabetical order) with:
- Alpine
- Debian
- Devuan
- Gentoo
IIRC, most (if not all) of these offer very minimal images. So, hopefully you’ll enjoy those.
Thankfully, these are meaningfully different from eachother (for the most part). So choosing between these shouldn’t be too much to ask.
FWIW, Gentoo comes undoubtedly with the least amount of defaults and thus behaves the most like a blank slate.
Sorry for the late reply and thank you for taking your time! I have “defaulted” back to Artix, having fixed the NIC issue. And I agree, Gentoo is what I dream of being able to handle, but all the USE flags KILLED me when I set it up for the first time a month or so ago. xD I do want to get back to it at some point though.
Sorry for the late reply
No worries fam 🙂.
thank you for taking your time!
It has been my pleasure 🙂.
I have “defaulted” back to Artix, having fixed the NIC issue.
Glad to hear that you were able to return back to your home.
And I agree, Gentoo is what I dream of being able to handle, but all the USE flags KILLED me when I set it up for the first time a month or so ago. xD I do want to get back to it at some point though.
Good mindset! I’m sure you’ll manage whenever you get back to it 😉.
I know you are asking for Linux, but if you like OpenRC, why not try one of the BSDs, specifically FreeBSD or OpenBSD.
If you still want Linux, NixOS or an immutable Linux sound fun.
Thanks! What should I expect from BSD-systems? Are they customizable from the start like an Arch based system or are they more of a done deal?
BSD actually heavily inspired crux, arch, and gentoo. The aur and portage were inspired by BSD ports. Now of course, I do not know which BSD did the inspiration.
