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.

  • pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    11 minutes ago

    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.

    • confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      3·
      1 hour ago

      I use Alpine Linux for my two Rasberry Pi servers and for my laptop with Sway. I enjoy it a lot. The setup scripts are quite nice to work with.

      Documentation is decent but I found myself supplementing the Alpine wiki with the Gentoo and Arch wikis.

      Building a system from the minimal starting point felt quite rewarding and I really enjoy tinkering with it still. Learning to script for ash has been quite the experience too.

  • throwaway403@programming.dev
    3·
    2 hours ago

    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.

    • printf("%s", name);@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      2·
      54 minutes ago

      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

      • throwaway403@programming.dev
        2·
        23 minutes ago

        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) to:

        • 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.

  • GooeyGlob@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 hours ago

    Since you know Debian, Devuan is there to try it. Given how almost unavoidable systemd is nowadays I basically try all of Devuan, Artix, Void and the first one that works for the task at hand is the one I stick to :)

  • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6·
    2 hours ago

    I’m more comfortable with OpenRC as init and process management.

    this community is dominated by the systemd fanboys and you will be punished accordingly for your heresy. lol

  • BartyDeCanter@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    2 hours ago

    If you’re specifically looking for OpenRC, I’d go with either Devuan or Gentoo, probably Devuan as I’m a Debian-by-default sort of person.

    • printf("%s", name);@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      51 minutes ago

      Thanks! Yeah, I just wish I didn’t have to deal with all the USE flags on Gentoo. My brain works in such ways, that I simply CANNOT “just go with the default” and I try to research them ALL, burning myself out. xD

  • zzffyfajzkzhnsweqm@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    2 hours ago

    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

    • ultimate_worrier@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      1·
      8 minutes ago

      INO, NixOS is like arch but it forces you to declare everything up front.

      I’ve seen people create advanced configs with Arch then bring them over to the locked-in world of NixOS. I’d add that Home-Manager is crucial if you decide to do that (less so if you are building headless machines or VM’s). Ps. You can even build a super customized config then run it as a NixVM in your favorite container manager/k8s cluster.

    • printf("%s", name);@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Thanks! I’d really like to stay with an Arch based system, but the last update of Artix “breaking” my NIC in combination with the distasteful comments that I read on their forums towards transpeople made me want to quit… Would it be possible to install Arch and “simply” use OpenRC there? 🤔

      • zzffyfajzkzhnsweqm@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        2 hours ago

        I would not bother much about transphobia, because in every large enough forum you will find them sooner or later. I would report them and move on. I would go with Artix in your case and figure out the issue with NIC. Seems like the best option based on you requirements.

  • greco@lemmy.world
    3·
    3 hours ago

    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.

      • greco@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 hours ago

        Both, in the best way. BSDs have strength in that the whole OS is in a single code tree, as opposed to the Linux kernel and GNU toolset being different orgs altogether. This makes the OS feel more tightly integrated with itself. More intentional.

        You end up with a good set of sane defaults, but still the flexibility to chose what components you want to install.

        FreeBSD particularly has the ports tree and good linux compatibility to extend it where needed.

        Both have great documentation that will help you get acclimated to the differences between Linux and BSD.