Tinkering
So I've been doing a lot of tinkering in the recent months, hence a bit of the quiet time of not blogging here. I've been playing with a couple distributions I've never really tried before. Specifically Void Linux, which is a rolling-release Linux distribution that's quite actually more impressive than I anticipated, Siduction, which is basically Debian SID with a Calamares GUI installation and some nice customizations the Siduction team's done, and both of these distros are arguably both pretty awesome.
Along with this, I've also been tinkering with alternative operating system options for the Raspberry Pi, instead of the defacto standard Raspberry Pi OS (Formerly Rasbian). With that I've tried Arch Linux ARM, Void Linux as well, and Debian Raspi Trixie.
Void Linux
Void Linux is something I'm impressed with. I don't entirely like it, but I like the very basis of how it runs, and how fast it is for some of it's tooling. xbps-install, xbps-query, xbps-remove, are annoying tools that are different rather than being rolled into one package-manager and/or repository manager as many other distros do. But it's very fast. Using zstd compression which is proven to be amazingly fast, as shown on Arch Linux's pacman.
I even managed to make my own XBPS package from the xbps-src repository. It's similar in many respects to the way Arch Linux works with PKGBUILD, but has some differences for sure. Some of it is even automated to the point you may not need much in the way of actual instructions to run. Just metadata about what it's called, and description of it. Just depends on what's required to build it.
Siduction
This is a very cool Debian-based distribution from the belly of SID, the unstable branch of Debian, which is still more stable than most rolling-release distros in many aspects. Yes, you can be bitten by it, just as with any distro, but usually in different ways, not because of bleeding edge software because even though it's SID, it's not always 1:1 newer versions of software like Arch Linux and Void Linux would be.
If EndeavourOS and/or Arch Linux ever becomes a burden to continue to maintain, Siduction's the most likely distribution I would switch to. Just my biggest concern is how they still seem to be a version old on KDE Frameworks, which caused many issues on Debian 12, by the very same thing KDE Frameworks being 1 version older than current. But, I think that'll change once Trixie's out.
Raspberry Pi
As I've been poking around at new distros, I've also been trying out new distros on my Raspberry Pi's!
- 2 RPI 3Bs (1GB)
- 1 RPI 4B (4GB)
- 2 P0W (512MB)
I used to use these in home automation, but since moving out of the country and into an apartment, I'm no longer with a home automation setup anymore, at least for the time being. But, I want to try to use these for something.
Currently I'm running the RPI-4B with Void Linux with the KDE Plasma 6.3.3 desktop environment, mostly to run a browser, with Deskflow to access from my desktop. I've considered using it for just that, a browser for notes, research, game walkthroughs, etc.. But it's sluggish for sure, and accessing it can be tedious in it's current design. I'd like to make use of all these RPI's for something. I've had lots of random ideas.. Barring kubernetes (I will not do this again!), I'd like ideas! Any ideas? Leave some comments down below!
I've tinkered with Void Linux, which is actually amazingly fast, to maintain, to update, to install. I almost wanted to use this, but at the same time, I feel it has some issues that may cause some functionality, but we'll see.
Debian Raspi Trixie is what I have on one of the RPI-3B's now. And it's slooooow to boot. Slooooow to update... I wanted to try this because newer software than on Raspberry Pi OS and all, but, yeah, it's likely going back to Raspberry Pi OS, or Void Linux depending on what I end up using it for.