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Disparate Distros

I have recently had the oppertunity to spend a little time superficially playing with some Linux distributions which are new to me. While I will state upfront that my experience with these systems has been far short of thorough, I thought it might be worth recording my thoughts nonetheless.

To describe my background - I am a fairly long-time user of various Linux distributions, having started out with Ubuntu and having since had significant experience with Solus, Arch, and OpenSuse among others. I currently use OpenSuse Tumbleweed on my main desktop machine, for the simple reason that it strikes the balance between having new software and being relatively stable. While it is the case that a Tumbleweed system will need updating when returned to after some time away, the update process is less liable to entirely break the system than with Arch. OpenSuse is not a sexy distribution. The package manager is slow (though not as slow as that of Fedora) and a terminal login prompt is flashed before the display manager appears into view. That said, it is robust and well suited to my use-case, which requires a distribution that is both up-to-date and stable.

The first of the distributions to which I have been recently exposed is Void Linux. This system is a sort of paleo-Arch; a minimalist Linux system in the classical Unix tradition. In lieu of systemd, Void uses runit, a simpler system more strictly allied to the file-based paradigm. I have to admit, while I am in no way a systemd hater, Void is an immensely effective system for a minimal server application - perhaps moreso than its systemctl'd bretheren. The simple, abstraction-free attitude that Void takes towards service management really does impress me. I'm even serving this page right now from my Raspberry Pi running Void! I daresay that if you want to run just a few services, statically, on a well-nurtured machine, you could scarcely do better than Void, with its back-to-basics philosophy being its biggest selling point in this regard. Would I use Void for a machine I had to use day in, day out? Probably not. As maligned as systemd is, its mindlessness does have its benefits. However, for a server, left to its own devices, it seems to be a great offering. Pragmatics set aside, it is well worth remembering from time to time that systemd is only an optional part of the Linux ecosystem.

The second distribution with which I have had recent familiarity is Pop OS, the Ubuntu based offering from System76. Since I am, in general, a software pragmatist, I have historically not been particuarly wary to opt for Ubuntu distributions, and indeed it is one of my (broken) Ubuntu installations that found itself being replaced with Pop OS. It must be said that the installation process was not entirely smooth - I was able to open gparted from the installation manager, but was not able to return to the installation process having carefully established the partitions into which I wished to actually perform the installation! However, once Pop OS was installed, I found it perfectly effective at performing the task with which I had assigned it; that is to say, the no-nonsense management of Linux games. Some find GNOME 3 effortful and tiresome, but in a application-centric concept where one does not find themselves dealing with too many filesystem-level operations, I tend to think it perfectly acceptable. I was able to easily install and open Lutris, Steam, and the Epic Games launcher, although Civ 6 would not rise to the challenge of running effectively under Pop OS. Nonetheless, I think that for the pragmatist who cares little for licential ideology, Pop OS is a worthy offering, that will likely provide the best gaming experience that Linux is capable of at this point in time.