this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I really really enjoyed this video. Matt is great, every video of his is a different type of gold, great content.
As for the distros:
Mint (my first distro, favourite beginner distro; when I tried using it a few months ago, however, the facade was stripped: it's not good for my use case anymore and that's fine)
Zorin
All the *buntus, but especially Kubuntu for some reason
Arch (I say that as a bit of an Arch fanboy)
NixOS (I say that as a NixOS user)
Most, if not all of the Arch-based distros (literally just Arch with an installer, some preinstalled stuff, and extra repos, except Manjaro which is a failure, but that's a different topic)
I haven't really heard anyone speak highly on Elementary OS or Solus so I don't exactly agree about them being overrated.
Extra (that will piss off a lot of power users, also rant and story time): Void Linux. It just feels like it's weird for the sake of being weird. And a lot of times I tried to get river working, to no avail, and that is literally my greatest issue with Void, as well as the fa t it tries to be like Arch, but more stable. Don't het me wrong, that's literally the type of distro I want to run, but I just find it to be a bit of a mess for some reason. Arch has always besn smooth sailing, with Archinstall or via a manula install, while with Void I felt like I was fighting the system to make it do what I want it to. So yeah, Void. Love the "Enter the Void" marketing, and the idea, as well as the logo. The installer was fine, xbps felt like a million characters to type which I hated, and I had a hard time getting river and sddm working properly. Runit was weird but I could get used to it if it actually worked well. The main issue I was having was that at first, the river session did not appear. I fixed that, but then I couldn't het sddm enabled on Void because it didn't have a service file for runit! Cue me trying to get that set up for an hour or two, until I gave up and moved on to Tumbleweed (where zypper broke on me and I had to depend on Yast to manage packages, sighs). And then I gave up on Tumbleweed, went to Arch, where things were ok, but I didn't really want a rolling relese so when NixOS 23.05 launched, I jumped ship and have been there since. It's a bit crazy to me that this system has been on my laptop since the start of June, but it does all of what I need in a good way, and that's without even taking advantage of the full capabilities of NixOS. I only use Home manaher to set my gtk and icon themes, and have not even touched flakes yet.
OpenSSL is such a pain in that regard. Want the info of a TLS certificate?
openssl x509 -text -noout -in /path/to/file.pem. Single character flags? What are those?Ever heard of
alias?For me it's
alias pks='xbps-query -Rs'andalias pki='xbps-install'(package search and package install).I don't want to sound like a jerk, and I say this with all due respect for Void, which I kind of like, but...
If your argument against a command needing too many keystrokes is "use alias" then you've already lost. Even you think it's too long. Thats why you use alias...
Before Void I was using Debian (then Devuan), and I used aliases for the package manager commands there too.
Anyway, I think the "the program name is too long" argument is even worse.
I use aliases too, and I (mostly) use Fedora. Alias is a great tool. I also think "the program name is too long" is a pretty silly argument. We're on the same page there. All I meant was that "just use alias" isn't really a rebuttal to that particular point.
Laughing in agreement at your list... then I get to Void. Instant angry.
But I understand your perspective. I would rarely recommend Void to someone, coming from a daily Void user. It is a lot. Paradigms are different. But I love it. It works when you figure it out, and I've never had a broken system with Void. It is truly stable. (Obligatory "in my experience".)
I DID warn you! And it most certainly is a lot. It felt very overwhelming to me.
And the same could be said of OpenSUSE, NixOS and Arch, but it takes time and effort from the user to figure it out, and Void caught me at a time wherw I was pissed and wanted a working system. I just thought "I'm hopping anyways, might as well tried Void. It can't be that different. And if it fails, I'm off to Tumbleweed". The system didn't fail, my getting around in the system and trying to figure it out, after being exhausted and frustrated, failed. If those rhings did not happen, I might have saved myself many hours of Tumbleweed and Arch, but hey, it is what it is, and I found a distro that fits my needs and works well for me. I'm glad you have done the same.
Edit: Overall Void is an INCREDIBLE project and I have a great deal of respect for its developers, creating their own package manager and init system, which is no easy task, but it is greatly overhyped, in my opinion, as are most distros. After all, they're just that. Distros. They won't change your life (unless you get a Linux job offering for one, like the guy that got a helpdesk job for running Arch, some company using RHEL or clones giving you a role for being familiar with Fedora, or the company that seeks NixOS Engineers) but overall, they likely won't change your life. They might offer a better and more efficient workflow for your needs that's not possible elsewhere, but even then, distro fanboyism, (saying that as an Arch fanboy, and a NixOS enjoyer) is kinda stupid, as your workflow can likely be replicated on other distros.