Re: forks, derivatives, other distros - what are you thinking/doing
----- Original Message -----
> From: "berenger morel" <berenger.morel@neutralite.org>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2014 10:17:22 AM
> Subject: Re: forks, derivatives, other distros - what are you thinking/doing
>> Rather than have this topic keep showing up in various threads, with
>> various uninformative names, what say I just pose the question
>> directly.
>>
>> If you're unhappy with systemd (and it's associated ecosystem),
>> and/or with the directions that it's taking Debian (and/or large
>> portions of the Linux ecosystem):
>> 1. What are your issues, reasons for doing so - general and/or
>> specific?
>> 2. What are you considering, evaluating, or otherwise thinking about?
>> 3. What other options/initiatives are you aware of that you've
>> discarded or otherwise are not considering, and why?
>
I have just my laptop and three home "servers". I have Debian on only one of the three, though one of the others is running Ubuntu, so there's some crossover there.
1. My concerns are philosophical, political, and somewhat technical. I think systemd is just trying to do too many things. It seems by taking the idea of "...well, this 'thing' would really benefit from being tied in too because it relies on X" to its logical conclusion, then *everything* should eventually be part of systemd and you wind up with a SystemdOS. That might be OK, but it's not unixlike. Also while there are certainly some in the anti-systmed crowd that are just plain crazy, there are many in the pro crowd that are just plain rude, condescending, dismissive, etc.. Basically if you don't agree with them, then there must be something wrong with you... like you're stupid. I don't care for that attitude and I think it bodes poorly for systemd.
2. I'm not doing anything with the servers for now. I'll hold out as long as I can and make a decision about what to do with them at the last possible moment. There just my personal stuff, so I can afford to hold out for a long time. For the laptop I'm going with the Void distribution. It takes some extra work, but absolutely everything ultimately works: sound, hibernate (CLI and GUI), skype.
3. Anything Illumos based. I tried a few different ones and the all cash during initial startup. It happens really fast, so I can't even see what the issue is. Oracle Solaris. The GUI installer dies on trying to start an X session. I could work around it manually, but I was already not real keen on going with Oracle anyway. BSDs. I've used FreeBSD one way or another since v4.1, but it's not good for a laptop IMO. Net and OpenBSD -- one doesn't support my wifi card and the other I don't remember what I disliked at this point. Funtoo, way, way too much work for desktop/laptop system. PC-BSD would probably be my #2 choice after Void except there's no support for either my wifi or wired card until 11.0.
So my opinions are Void for a laptop, desktop, notebook. Server's are trickier. Depends on your hardware and what software you need to run and how much time and effort you're willing to put it to get it to run if you have to start gathering requirements, compiling, etc. manually vs. a distro that "just works" as far as whatever you need it to do, but might not fit your philosophies. If FreeBSD supports it, that'd be my first choice. After that, maybe Void again.
Reply to: