The Linux ecosystem is vast and diverse, offering a multitude of distributions to suit every need and preference. With hundreds of distros to choose from, it’s a pity that most are rarely mentioned while the popular ones are constantly being regurgitated.

This thread aims to celebrate this diversity and shine a light on smaller projects with passionate developers. I invite you to pitch your favorite underappreciated distro and share your experiences with those lesser-known Linux distributions that deserve more attention.

While there are no strict rules or banlists, I encourage you to focus on truly niche or exotic distributions rather than the more commonly discussed ones. Consider touching upon what makes your chosen distro unique:

  • What features or philosophies set it apart?
  • Why do you favor it over other distros, including the popular ones? (Beyond “It just works.”)
  • In what situations would you recommend it to others?

Whether it’s a specialized distro for a particular use case or a general-purpose OS with a unique twist, let’s explore the road less traveled in the Linux landscape. Your insights could introduce fellow enthusiasts to their next favorite distribution!

  • z3rOR0ne
    223·
    5 months ago

    Artix Linux. Basically Arch without systemd. It has four options for alternative init systems, so you get to see how it compared to systemd (ultimately it shows how a more minimal init approach is all you need in place of systemd, and where systemd has stepped outside of init into what should be part of the OS space, like elogind, etc.)

    The Artix team have done an amazing job of writing various init scripts to keep the distro comparable with Arch, have written alternatives to systemd modules, like replacing elogind with their own implementation, seatd, and IMHO is the defacto standard for how you implement a non systemd distro.

    Working without systemd, even if you like it from a sys admin standpoint, teaches you what you lose without systemd, which for the average user isn’t much. I game, code, administer web servers, etc., all without missing a beat on Artix Linux, and it honestly has taught me so much about Linux after I switched from Arch.

    I would consider jumping to Gentoo or Void out of curiosity, but Artix is where I’ll be staying for the foreseeable future.

    • moonlight@fedia.io
      4·
      5 months ago

      I’ve been kinda curious about Artix. I wouldn’t say I hate systemd, but I’ve been minorly annoyed by it and might want something more minimal.

      What is the software situation like? The AUR probably doesn’t work reliably, right?

      • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.orgEnglish
        7·
        5 months ago

        Yeah I’m someone who thinks systemd is pretty good, but I still avoid it on personal machines just because I think it’s level of market penetration creates a dangerous monoculture.

        • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
          51·
          5 months ago

          +1. systemd is something the Linux ecosystem really needs, but its execution is abysmal. We should be designing around standards so the best product can win. We should not be designing around singular implementations that could make it easy for Red Hat to execute a EEE strategy to consolidate Linux on the workstation.

          I can’t wait till a crowdstrike-like flaw is exposed in systemd so we can all see how terrible^W wonderful monocultures can be.

            • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
              1·
              5 months ago

              I’m not sure what you mean when suggesting Linux is a singular implementation around which features are exclusively designed. There’s all kinds of software that runs on all kinds of different OSes. Userspace applications, for example, can take advantage of POSIX compatibility to ensure that they run on all platforms (Linux, BSDs, even Windows).

              Does systemd have any similar sort of compatibility guarantee? Can I run systemd-whateverd on BSD? Can I run systemd itself on BSD? I’m pretty sure most other init systems support at least one other OS if not more. Would the maintainers even support merging patches that do this? What about musl?

          • z3rOR0ne
            21·
            5 months ago

            This kind of happened with the xz hack already. I didn’t look into it heavily, so this is anecdotal, but accordingly the xz hack relied on systemd to execute the backdoor, so if you didn’t have systemd on your machine, the backdoor was essentially inert.

            • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
              3·
              5 months ago

              That’s not at all the conclusion you should draw. xz was linked into systemd but that was just a convenient target. Once xz was compromised it could have targeted literally anything that loaded it. Your only real defence would have been not to install it at all.

      • z3rOR0ne
        5·
        5 months ago

        I use the AUR all the time, the only thing I have to do is look for systemd as a dependency and avoid that.

        The Artix team generally provides init scripts for commonly used packages that rely on init. So for example, if you want to install openvpn, you’d have to install it alongside its script so:

        sudo pacman -S openvpn openvpn-runit

        Installs the runit init script. It does let you know that (for runit) to initialize it you have to create a soft link to the service directory so after installation:

        sudo ln -s /etc/runit/sv/openvpn /run/runit/service/

        And then initialize using runit’s service manager, sv:

        sudo sv start openvpn

        Anyways, that’s just one instance. I have only had one issue where I had to heavily troubleshoot for an obscure piece of software that relied on systemd as a dependency and there wasn’t any alternative…so I simply modified the source code, recompiled the binary and did it myself. But I’ve been using Artix for nearly 5 years and that is one out of thousands of packages.

        • moonlight@fedia.io
          2·
          5 months ago

          Oh okay, that actually doesn’t sound too bad. I’ll definitely consider it for my next install.