this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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I use Arch btw


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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Arch is good, no doubt πŸ‘.

Void is better 😁.

[–] TrickDacy 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

Faster, more stable, no systemd, supports musl and architectures not usually supported by most distros. It's probably the most stable rolling release distro out there.

[–] Theharpyeagle 21 points 3 months ago (4 children)

What is the benefit of no systemd?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago (7 children)

It's too popular and it works too well.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The main benefit is that when people get tired of distro flame wars, they can move on to init system flame wars.

[–] AlpacaChariot 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

With the price of energy being what it is, people need the systemd flame wars to keep them warm!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No, I just don't like systemd. It's bloated and full of bugs. Just because almost every distro out there uses it, doesn't mean it's good.

[–] AlpacaChariot 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm feeling warmer already, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

OK, I have to admit, i kinda fell for it πŸ˜‚.

[–] AlpacaChariot 5 points 3 months ago

It made me chuckle, so thanks for that!

[–] zloubida 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Theharpyeagle 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I have no horse in this race, I don't have strong feelings about it either way as long as it works. But I can't help but notice that OP skipped replying to me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

OP said β€œbloated and full of bugs”.

I've been using Arch since shortly before they started using systemd and literally never ran into a systemd bug.

I have no clue at this point what β€œbloated” means. Maybe if everything works and you don't have to hack up your own solution all the time, that's β€œbloat”?

[–] anarchy79 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh great so now i have to unlearn systemd again?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Runit is even easier than doing things in systemd.

https://youtu.be/PRpcqj9QR68

It really is that easy. Runit is probably the simplest init/service manager there is out there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/PRpcqj9QR68

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Does it support glibc while it supports musl?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes. From their website:

C library diversity

Void Linux supports both the musl and GNU libc implementations, patching incompatible software when necessary and working with upstream developers to improve the correctness and portability of their projects.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"Patching incompatible software"

What does that mean? If glibc is supported why there is a portability issueand requirement of patches?

[–] TheEntity 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Presumably so it can work with either libc implementation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I have checked the void website and it does NOT support glibc. Here is it:

Wait edit: there is musl variant and glibc variant..

Incompatible software

musl practices very strict and minimal standard compliance. Many commonly used platform-specific extensions are not present. Because of this, it is common for software to need modification to compile and/or function properly. Void developers work to patch such software and hopefully get portability/correctness changes accepted into the upstream projects.

Proprietary software usually supports only glibc systems, though sometimes such applications are available as flatpaks and can be run on a musl system. In particular, the proprietary NVIDIA drivers do not support musl, which should be taken into account when evaluating hardware compatibility.

glibc chroot

Software requiring glibc can be run in a glibc chroot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Well if glibc is supported all glibc softwares must work right?? Patching the software to support musl would not be needed if it does support glibc

[–] TheEntity 3 points 3 months ago

Even if it's supported, it doesn't mean it needs to be installed in every system. If the user wants to use a Musl-based system, the software working only on glibc needs to be patched. At least that's how I understood these statements.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Some patches are there for software that reauires systemd or parts of it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

But the Void Linux team specifically wants to support both glibc and musl

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They are likely referring to musl. Patches might be needed for some programs to work with musl.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Not just musl, software that depends on systemd (or parts of it) as well.

We also need to patch binaries as well sometimes 😁. It is fun though, cutter and/or iaito are great tools.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, there are basically 2 builds for every architecture. One is glibc, the other is musl. I haven't used the musl builds that much, just toyed with them a few times (mainly because of lack of software), but if you only use open source software that doesn't specifically depend on the GNU toolchain, yes, you can daily drive it, no doubt there. And yes, it is faster than the glibc builds.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah different builds. Not what i expected

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Gonna give it a try one day

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Many programs aren't packaged for Void though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (10 children)

Repackaging is easy though with xbps-src.

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[–] jroid8 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How is it faster? You mean every program runs faster or what?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No, just bootup and general responsivness of the system. Software is still compiled by the ssme compilers used in other distros. Everything is not magically faster.

Though on the musl build, yeah, it is faster. Trouble is, you can't run glibc software on it. Through chroot, yeah, but natively, no.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago
  • The package manager is extremely fast
  • The lack of systemd reduces startup time
  • The musl libc marginally speeds up programs
[–] TrickDacy 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. I will have to try it some time. I just know on my raspberry pi 5, out of the few OSes I could get to run on it, Arch was the fastest and smoothest running, and gets updates all the time. All this, even though rpi5 is not even officially supported yet!

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