Hi all,
I think the subject makes my question clear enough, but I'll provide
some background. The x86_64 machine I'm currently using as a
router/freenet node/i2p node has some components which are on the
brink of failing, the mobo seems to be one of those. So, I'm looking
at what to replace it with, and it seems like the raspberry pi 2b
should do most if not all of what I want nicely, and for a small
price. I am considering what I would run on it, and naturally raspbian
is my first choice, since I'm already very familiar with debian.

It seems like the raspberry pi foundation is providing some pi
specific packages for raspbian jessie, and uses debian's official
armfh repositories for the rest. If that is correct, then it also
looks like raspbian jessie for armfh contains systemd. Is this correct
as well? If yes, then I'm assuming that devuan is currently focusing
on x86 and x86_64.

So my question, what alternative choices do I have? I can use raspbian
wheezy. However, if I'm going to be setting up a brand new system, it
makes little sense to install something which will be end of life in a
few months. I'm also familiar with slackware, but like debian/devuan's
vast choice of binary packages. The only other distributions I'm aware
of for the pi are arch and ubuntu, which already use, or will be using
systemd as far as I know.

Since I plan to mainly use this as a router, I could put openwrt on
it, but I don't think that will give me things like apcupsd, and
bind9. If I'm wrong on that, I'd love to know. I admit I haven't
investigated openwrt too much being in favor of raspbian before I
discovered that likely contains systemd. I like that openwrt runs on
busybox.

I was planning to get a serial cable for the pi, so I can do
console=ttyS0,115200 to be able to interact with it from boot to shutdown,
but saw no mention anywhere of being able to do this, so I probably
won't get the cable. Being blind, I have no use for a screen, and see
little point to having a keyboard with no output. So whatever
distribution I would use needs to be light, text-console-based, and
provide a ready to login ssh server once I put the sd card into the
pi, and plug it in. Any comments or suggestions would be
appreciated. I will also be needing another wired usb network
card. So, if anyone can suggest one which you know is supported by linux, that
would be great too if the list moderators will allow it. Unfortunately
the product listings don't list the chipset a given card uses. I'll be
shopping at newegg.com. Thanks in advance.

Greg


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