On 2024-05-17 04:16, Martin Steigerwald wrote:
> William Peckham via Dng - 17.05.24, 01:01:20 CEST:
>> Keep in mind that Debian is not Linux. It is a single distribution that
>> has a long history of proper community support and support for the
>> community (although it has always had a political element internally)
>> it was longer lasting and arguably better than most of the others.
>> Certainly it adhered more closely to the FOSS and Unix philosophies
>> than most. That Debian has died. Counting on it is probably
>> counterproductive, but ignoring it maybe just as bad. We are not the
>> only ones using or maintaining Linux distributions that are free from
>> SystemD. There are other distributions that have no parent back end
>> (Hola Void and Slackware friends!), or that have a back end in the Red
>> Hat family, or in Arch. We might consider those our nearest neighbors
>> in the community.
> Add to that Alpine Linux, a distribution I am really impressed by.
>
> While apt 2.9 seems to initialize quite a bit faster than previous
> versions their apk package manager is almost unbelievably fast. I am not
> sure I would believe it if I have not seen it. Dist upgrading a minimal
> system with SSH from 3.18 to 3.19 of Alpine Linux took like say: 1 second,
> maybe 2?
>
> And being able to install a minimal Linux system with SSH in about 20-30
> MiB (yes, you read that right) storage space is really impressive as well.
>
> Haha, I bet those two are related. Alpine Linux will get lots bigger in
> case you install a full desktop environment, but their footprint for SSH
> based systems is almost ridiculously low. Or wait, is it? There has been
> the time where such low storage needs were standard among operating
> systems.
>
> They use OpenRC.
>
> PostmarketOS is based on it, unfortunately due to some problems with
> desktop integration they switched to Systemd, but as far as I read still
> provide a version based on OpenRC as well. Not sure which desktop
> environment those problems refer to. I'd bet rather GNOME than KDE's
> Plasma, but so far I did not research further. Will do so, cause I like to
> know whether I can put Plasma Mobile on OpenRC based PostmarketOS onto an
> SHIFTphone 6mq. That would be great, although I am fully aware that I
> cannot expect it to be production ready at this point in time and it might
> be wise to install an Android based custom ROM and dual boot if possible.
> From what I read so far that might be doable.
>
> Yesterday I wondered about some kind of cross alternate init system
> distribution communication channel like a mailing list of some sort. Not
> sure whether Devuan, Alpine Linux, Void and so on people would be
> interested in that.
>
I've been using Artix on my latest desktop build as I was frustrated
with the mess that is/was(?) the sid ceres zone and needed fresh
software releases due to my hardware choices.
Artix is actually pretty good especially considering its rolling nature.
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=artix

It really got me thinking about all the parallel work being done to
avoid systemd in the greater Linux world.
How much duplication of effort caused by lack of communication between
distros?
I agree and think some form of communication channel would be good for all.

- Clarke