I've used mainly Void Linux since mid 2015, and as far as I know, for
every second of that time, Void had usr-merge. It's not THAT bad from
my viewpoint.

If you don't object to having an initramfs, I don't see the
disadvantage of having everything in /usr/bin and having the other
stuff just be links.

Somebody mentioned having to reinstall from scratch because of
usr-merge. I'd present a re-installation as an opportunity to do spring
cleaning, and get rid of ghosts from OSes past. Before I moved to a
rolling release, I though of new installation on distro major upgrades
as being an opportunity. And if you do a few things first, like making
a list of all the human-installed packages, /etc/fstab, lsblk and a few
other things, it's really not difficult. And of course, make two
trusted backups before doing it.

I've heard some people ponder leaving Devuan because of usr-merge. I
suggest you stick with Devuan. Wonderful OS, wonderful community, no
systemd, and runit is starting to make an appearance. Even if Debian
sabotages runit, runit is very easy to install by yourself. Debian has
a huge library of software that you'll miss if you go elsewhere. Take
it from me, 20% of everything recommended online I don't have in my
Void repositories. Stuff you guys take for granted.

The grass is always greener on the other side. I don't think usr-merge
is important enough to make you move, nor is that silly poetteristic
method of naming USB ports.

SteveT

Steve Litt
http://444domains.com