What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?

[davkol]

Thanks all for the thoughts on Arch - I'll have to read up on nvidia but lots of people use that compared to EasyAVR so there will be something to read )

If my crusty AMD card has no troubles you'll no doubt be successful with nvidia. But as you know, most seem to avoid the nvidia open source drivers. Damn shame. )

nouveau is basically dead AFAIK.

relevant: Nouveau Developers Remain Blocked By NVIDIA From Advancing Open-Source Driver (even though it's on Moronix)

[Blaise170]

I might give Antergos a try on my Chromebook. Would make a pretty neat machine.

[iri]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

[romevi]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

Gentoo.

Or Android.

[xtrafrood]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

Gentoo.

Or Android.

Android?

[Leslieann]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

There is a systemD free Debian (Devuan) and you can do a systemd free install of Arch.

[Blaise170]

Android?

Yes it actually works really well on PC. It's the last OS I installed.

http://www.android-x86.org

[xtrafrood]

Android?

Yes it actually works really well on PC. It's the last OS I installed.

http://www.android-x86.org

Aye, I played with Android x86 several months back when I needed to post an Instagram picture (after many headaches due to Bluestacks and Andy not playing nice with the Play Store).

Why back Android when there are a plethora of distros to choose from? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Linux_distributions_without_systemd

I've gotta say I enjoyed Slackware and Puppy Linux (Slacko is my favorite version of Puppy Linux).

[rowdy]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

BSD?

[iri]

What's currently the best distro without systemd?

BSD?

okay-face.jpg

[DALExSNAIL]

FreeBSD has a cool logo, and imo that's a great reason to try it. 

[Blaise170]

Aye, I played with Android x86 several months back when I needed to post an Instagram picture (after many headaches due to Bluestacks and Andy not playing nice with the Play Store).

Why back Android when there are a plethora of distros to choose from? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Linux_distributions_without_systemd

I've gotta say I enjoyed Slackware and Puppy Linux (Slacko is my favorite version of Puppy Linux).

I was using it more as an emulator than as a full time OS. If I were to choose one OS today to download, it would probably be WattOS. Keep in mind that I haven't been paying much attention to Linux in the past year or two.

[xtrafrood]

Aye, I played with Android x86 several months back when I needed to post an Instagram picture (after many headaches due to Bluestacks and Andy not playing nice with the Play Store).

Why back Android when there are a plethora of distros to choose from? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Linux_distributions_without_systemd

I've gotta say I enjoyed Slackware and Puppy Linux (Slacko is my favorite version of Puppy Linux).

I was using it more as an emulator than as a full time OS. If I were to choose one OS today to download, it would probably be WattOS. Keep in mind that I haven't been paying much attention to Linux in the past year or two.

Ah, I see

[Leslieann]

If I were to choose one OS today to download, it would probably be WattOS.

I did some testing on that and it pretty much was no more efficient that straight Ubuntu or Mint (which are pretty good out of the box).
We're talking 10 minute battery difference over the course of 3-5 hours*.

I'm not saying don't use it, just that if you are using it for their claim of efficiency, you may be happier with something else and eating the small battery gains. This may not hold true on older hardware and netbooks (or AMD E series), but on something like a first gen I5 or newer I3 or better, there's very little to gain by using it over another Buntu' flavor or distro.

*tested on a 2nd gen I5 Lenovo X220.

[rowdy]

FreeBSD has a cool logo, and imo that's a great reason to try it. 

[romevi]

FreeBSD has a cool logo, and imo that's a great reason to try it. 

(Attachment Link)

So either one female or five males?

I think you've answered for us all.

[tp4tissue]

FreeBSD has a cool logo, and imo that's a great reason to try it. 

(Attachment Link)

So either one female or five males?

I think you've answered for us all.

I remember my school's linux club had an attractive female salesperson.

but when you got there, she was THE ONLY attractive female in the club..

I remember feeling dooped..

[xtrafrood]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

[sth]

I gotta stop hopping

(Attachment Link)

now you can

[romevi]

Latest kernel update wiped my backlight config. Couldn't figure out why my backlight wasn't adjusting, then I simply reinstalled the graphics drivers backlight package. And it's working now.

Linux is weird.

Cool.

But weird.

[Kaorix]

I use ubuntu headless for my webserver/nas rig, and linux mint cinnamon  for general day to day.

[Skull_Angel]

Alright, after having an updated taste with Arch and Antergos then going on a gaming binge on the old Win7 drive (several months...), I ended up forgetting my Antergos pw... SO! I figured I'd take the opportunity to check out another distro or two.

What are people's impression of Solus? I've read a little about it and like the idea behind it's direction. My main focus will likely be gaming (native and Wine/PoL) in the end, so having a distro with development/a repository that supports such is something that interests me quite a bit.

[_rubik]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

[xtrafrood]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

Why do you feel the need to question my computing habits?

[Altis]

Can you install Linux (Mint Xfce) to a USB thumb drive?

I have the ISO "installed" to a USB 3 drive that runs in Live mode very well. But it always offers to install it to the hard drive.

I'm wondering if I can do a complete install of it to the thumb drive, or is there even a difference when you do so?

I'd installed to the internal drive but it's only a 128 GB. I may change it for the 512 GB in my 17" MacBook Pro that I'll be selling, but I'd rather sell those together since it will have both Mac and Windows installed on it.

[_rubik]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

Why do you feel the need to question my computing habits?

I'm actually just curious. I've never run BSD before (unless I was doing simple router stuff), and I'm wondering if it has any advantages / if I should even bother learning it?

[xtrafrood]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

Why do you feel the need to question my computing habits?

I'm actually just curious. I've never run BSD before (unless I was doing simple router stuff), and I'm wondering if it has any advantages / if I should even bother learning it?

Oh, I see. I liked the NetBSD's ncurses style installer (VM--the intention was to eventually install to a PATA drive but the ole ThinkCentre 8193's PSU crapped out). My attempts at installing it to a usb drive through VM/USB passthrough was unfortunately unsuccessful. Darn thing didn't detect the formatted drive as an installation candidate. I downloaded and loaded FreeBSD, OpenBSD, GhostBSD, DragonflyBSD, and TrueOS. TrueOS was... different. NetBSD seemed to stand out the most in my eyes. After one gets past the whole Sidekick phone thing, and learns that Juan Romero Pardines had a part in maintaining NetBSD, it's not so bad.

[_rubik]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

Why do you feel the need to question my computing habits?

I'm actually just curious. I've never run BSD before (unless I was doing simple router stuff), and I'm wondering if it has any advantages / if I should even bother learning it?

Oh, I see. I liked the NetBSD's ncurses style installer (VM--the intention was to eventually install to a PATA drive but the ole ThinkCentre 8193's PSU crapped out). My attempts at installing it to a usb drive through VM/USB passthrough was unfortunately unsuccessful. Darn thing didn't detect the formatted drive as an installation candidate. I downloaded and loaded FreeBSD, OpenBSD, GhostBSD, DragonflyBSD, and TrueOS. TrueOS was... different. NetBSD seemed to stand out the most in my eyes. After one gets past the whole Sidekick phone thing, and learns that Juan Romero Pardines had a part in maintaining NetBSD, it's not so bad.

It seems like choosing between BSD and Linux these days is like choosing between shells. In their early days, they had different functionality and uses, but today they largely do the same stuff. Shrug.

Also, isn't Juan Pardines the lead contributor to Void? Is there some dirt around him that I don't know about?

[xtrafrood]

This is why I like NetBSD. Try to find a NetBSD meme that isn't an amazing toaster (forgets about Sidekick phones.. <_<). Unix-y is Linux right? This is totally fine.

Do you actually run BSD? Is it to be eclectic, or do you have practical reasons?

Why do you feel the need to question my computing habits?

I'm actually just curious. I've never run BSD before (unless I was doing simple router stuff), and I'm wondering if it has any advantages / if I should even bother learning it?

Oh, I see. I liked the NetBSD's ncurses style installer (VM--the intention was to eventually install to a PATA drive but the ole ThinkCentre 8193's PSU crapped out). My attempts at installing it to a usb drive through VM/USB passthrough was unfortunately unsuccessful. Darn thing didn't detect the formatted drive as an installation candidate. I downloaded and loaded FreeBSD, OpenBSD, GhostBSD, DragonflyBSD, and TrueOS. TrueOS was... different. NetBSD seemed to stand out the most in my eyes. After one gets past the whole Sidekick phone thing, and learns that Juan Romero Pardines had a part in maintaining NetBSD, it's not so bad.

It seems like choosing between BSD and Linux these days is like choosing between shells. In their early days, they had different functionality and uses, but today they largely do the same stuff. Shrug.

Also, isn't Juan Pardines the lead contributor to Void? Is there some dirt around him that I don't know about?

I enjoyed Void's xbp package manager. From what I've gleamed thus far BSD by default is a bit more focused on security hardening the system by walling off user programs. I wish someone would have told me that Linux also had desktop environments back when I was a kid (decades ago--although that could be up for debate I suppose). I thought it was all Kingdom Of Kroz type server based CLI for some reason.

tl;dr
I like that Juan Romero Pardines helped to maintain NetBSD, and I like pkgsrc (alias-ing all the things) in NetBSD.

[davkol]

Can you install Linux (Mint Xfce) to a USB thumb drive?

I have the ISO "installed" to a USB 3 drive that runs in Live mode very well. But it always offers to install it to the hard drive.

I'm wondering if I can do a complete install of it to the thumb drive, or is there even a difference when you do so?

It shouldn't make any difference what (conventional) storage device you select to partition for installation, as long as it has the right partition table (you might have to create it).

But, what kind of "USB drive" do you mean? An external hard drive? A "flash" thumb stick? Beware of reliability issues: many sata-to-usb controllers for hard drives don't support SMART, not to mention flash-memory sticks that often use cheap/slow controllers with poor sector reallocation (i.e., the system might die on you, because you wear out the flash memory).

There are interesting approaches other than traditional installation: some tools for writing images to thumb sticks let you create a persistent-storage partition for data, or you can create the image from scratch (with the various special filesystems) to load the system to tmpfs and then perhaps write changes to the image and so on.

[Altis]

Can you install Linux (Mint Xfce) to a USB thumb drive?

I have the ISO "installed" to a USB 3 drive that runs in Live mode very well. But it always offers to install it to the hard drive.

I'm wondering if I can do a complete install of it to the thumb drive, or is there even a difference when you do so?

It shouldn't make any difference what (conventional) storage device you select to partition for installation, as long as it has the right partition table (you might have to create it).

But, what kind of "USB drive" do you mean? An external hard drive? A "flash" thumb stick? Beware of reliability issues: many sata-to-usb controllers for hard drives don't support SMART, not to mention flash-memory sticks that often use cheap/slow controllers with poor sector reallocation (i.e., the system might die on you, because you wear out the flash memory).

There are interesting approaches other than traditional installation: some tools for writing images to thumb sticks let you create a persistent-storage partition for data, or you can create the image from scratch (with the various special filesystems) to load the system to tmpfs and then perhaps write changes to the image and so on.

Does the persistent data include any software I install?

The USB 3.0 thumb drive runs very quickly in Live mode, leading me to wonder how it would run with a full install on it. You make a good point regarding long-term reliability, which if nothing else would make me not feel very good about doing it. The drive isn't too expensive, but it's the only one I have that's 32 GB and very fast.

Since having written that post, I realized my backup external hard drive seems to have failed and won't place nice. I snagged a $15 USB 3 to SATA 2.5" connector that I'll be using with a spare drive for backing up stuff, but I'm thinking I could use another spare drive to see how Linux runs on it as this wouldn't cost anything extra... though I dread the thought of booting from a hard drive rather than SSD. Plus, they're pretty large and awkward.

The only other thing I could think of is the SD/[other cards] slot as it accepts them fully recessed, though they're probably even less reliable and more expensive than a USB 3 drive.

Maybe I'll just get a larger SSD at some point so I can dual-boot with plenty of room to spare. I am hesitant to do this as I've been hearing that Windows can sometimes ruin your Linux partition following an update.

[suicidal_orange]

Maybe I'll just get a larger SSD at some point so I can dual-boot with plenty of room to spare. I am hesitant to do this as I've been hearing that Windows can sometimes ruin your Linux partition following an update.

Windows has been known to replace the boot sector so you can't boot Linux (until you boot an installer and fix it) but I've never heard of it damaging a partition it can't even read.  That sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen...

If you're only dual booting you can install the windows bootloader as primary on the drive and the Linux one on the partition then add Linux to the windows list which would be immune to wiping at the expense of slightly increased boot time (you have to wait for two timeouts to boot Linux, assuming it's the default option in both bootloaders)

[davkol]

Does the persistent data include any software I install?

It depends what method you use.

The checkbox in Ubuntu's Live USB Creator (now discontinued btw afaik) made it create a partition only for data (home directory?). You can manually "install" stuff into your home directory too, though. Changes to the system (i.e., system-wide installs) weren't persistent.

However, if you do it some other way, you can enable persistent changes too. I would look into Arch wiki or how distros like Slax are implemented.

Since having written that post, I realized my backup external hard drive seems to have failed and won't place nice. I snagged a $15 USB 3 to SATA 2.5" connector that I'll be using with a spare drive for backing up stuff, but I'm thinking I could use another spare drive to see how Linux runs on it as this wouldn't cost anything extra... though I dread the thought of booting from a hard drive rather than SSD. Plus, they're pretty large and awkward.

Keep in mind that USB or the controller will bottleneck a modern SSD.

BTW this is why I love the caddy (formerly UltraBay) on my thinkpad: I have replaced the optical drive by a bracket for a 2.5" HDD, while the laptop came with a 2.5" SSD. I'm not even sure, if it has an M.2 slot too.

The only other thing I could think of is the SD/[other cards] slot as it accepts them fully recessed, though they're probably even less reliable and more expensive than a USB 3 drive.

There are reliable industrial SD cards. Not cheap though.

[xtrafrood]

Does the persistent data include any software I install?

It depends what method you use.

The checkbox in Ubuntu's Live USB Creator (now discontinued btw afaik) made it create a partition only for data (home directory?). You can manually "install" stuff into your home directory too, though. Changes to the system (i.e., system-wide installs) weren't persistent.

However, if you do it some other way, you can enable persistent changes too. I would look into Arch wiki or how distros like Slax are implemented.

Since having written that post, I realized my backup external hard drive seems to have failed and won't place nice. I snagged a $15 USB 3 to SATA 2.5" connector that I'll be using with a spare drive for backing up stuff, but I'm thinking I could use another spare drive to see how Linux runs on it as this wouldn't cost anything extra... though I dread the thought of booting from a hard drive rather than SSD. Plus, they're pretty large and awkward.

Keep in mind that USB or the controller will bottleneck a modern SSD.

BTW this is why I love the caddy (formerly UltraBay) on my thinkpad: I have replaced the optical drive by a bracket for a 2.5" HDD, while the laptop came with a 2.5" SSD. I'm not even sure, if it has an M.2 slot too.

The only other thing I could think of is the SD/[other cards] slot as it accepts them fully recessed, though they're probably even less reliable and more expensive than a USB 3 drive.

There are reliable industrial SD cards. Not cheap though.

You'll probably figure it out. But, if everything else fails or bums you out, there's always Puppy Linux for full usb persistence (iirc Tahrpup is almost 1:1 with apt-get).

[Altis]

Thanks for the input csmertx, davkol, and suicidal_orange.

I didn't know you could add Linux to the Windows bootloader somehow. I'll have to look into this.

It seems like there are many ways to go about it, but each with their own cautions and limitations. If I had a second drive bay, I'd just toss it on there and use the BIOS to select which drive to boot.

Sadly, it is tempting to just run Windows on it and not use Linux, since it's easier and gets the job done. Linux is more of a want, so I'd like to make it work somehow. I know the USB3-SATA will not give SATA speeds, but USB 3.0 speeds seem to be good enough for Linux if my thumb drive is any indication. I wouldn't be using tons of software or files anyways.

[_rubik]

Thanks for the input csmertx, davkol, and suicidal_orange.

I didn't know you could add Linux to the Windows bootloader somehow. I'll have to look into this.

It seems like there are many ways to go about it, but each with their own cautions and limitations. If I had a second drive bay, I'd just toss it on there and use the BIOS to select which drive to boot.

Sadly, it is tempting to just run Windows on it and not use Linux, since it's easier and gets the job done. Linux is more of a want, so I'd like to make it work somehow. I know the USB3-SATA will not give SATA speeds, but USB 3.0 speeds seem to be good enough for Linux if my thumb drive is any indication. I wouldn't be using tons of software or files anyways.

If you're computer can handle it and you are hard-set against messing with your partition, I would highly recommend playing with Linux in VirtualBox. It'll let you learn the nitty gritty without fear of messing anything up. That, and you can get up in running in minutes.

[Altis]

Thanks for the input csmertx, davkol, and suicidal_orange.

I didn't know you could add Linux to the Windows bootloader somehow. I'll have to look into this.

It seems like there are many ways to go about it, but each with their own cautions and limitations. If I had a second drive bay, I'd just toss it on there and use the BIOS to select which drive to boot.

Sadly, it is tempting to just run Windows on it and not use Linux, since it's easier and gets the job done. Linux is more of a want, so I'd like to make it work somehow. I know the USB3-SATA will not give SATA speeds, but USB 3.0 speeds seem to be good enough for Linux if my thumb drive is any indication. I wouldn't be using tons of software or files anyways.

If you're computer can handle it and you are hard-set against messing with your partition, I would highly recommend playing with Linux in VirtualBox. It'll let you learn the nitty gritty without fear of messing anything up. That, and you can get up in running in minutes.

I thought about it, but it still means needing a larger internal drive (only 128 GB), and the CPU is only dual-core (6200U I think) -- though 8 GB of RAM would suffice. I got the machine nearly-new forCAD$375 ($291 USD) all-in, so I can't complain!

On my desktop, Linux is on its own second SSD. I can boot to either, or I can even boot the Linux system from Windows using VMWare Workstation. I love the setup but, alas, only have one drive bay in the ThinkPad.

[Leslieann]

It seems like there are many ways to go about it, but each with their own cautions and limitations. If I had a second drive bay, I'd just toss it on there and use the BIOS to select which drive to boot.

Use a usb stick.
There are two ways to do it, either format it with a usable area (this has some limitations but will work), or use it like a hard drive. This requires two usb sticks, one to use and the other for the installer.

There are two ways to do this as well.
Disconnect your windows drive, then boot from the stick and install to the usb stick as if it was a drive, this is the safest and lest likely to mess with your windows install but requires you to manually add the entry to the windows bootloader (Win2Grub makes this easy) or you can install to the usb and let it install grub to your windows drive.

Is it fast?
You might be surprised, it's not smoking obviously, but it's not bad either. The bonus is that Linux uses less space than Windows, so even a 32gig drive will have enough room to install almost anything you want.

That said, as I said in my switching guide, use what works for you. dual booting is a hassle. Personally, I hate it so I always setup virtual systems to deal with problems without dual booting. I would also recommend reading my switching guide as it has some tips that may help you.

[templanet]

I was interested in security so I installed OpenBSD on my main PC. I find it simple and it has very good documentation. The big downside is because it is security  and research focused, they don't support programs that use bad coding practices. Also video card support is really dated at the moment and Nvidia will never be supported, because it's closed source.

Currently I surf around on an old laptop using Devuan but want to change it to OpenBSD. I just have to get motivated to install it. I think the best way to use OpenBSD is to keep your main computer offline with whatever OS makes your life easiest and use a very basic computer running OpenBSD just for surfing.

[DALExSNAIL]

Getting the itch.

The itch to switch.

[dndlmx]

I'm a big fan of FreeBSD. Not an expert, mind you, but a user and a fan. 

[Blaise170]

I still want to get NetBSD running on my X68000 at some point.

[MrMen]

Still in love with my 2009 archlinux station 

[dndlmx]

I used Arch for a couple years on a laptop. I remember it was kinda finicky and things broke a little more often than other distros. Right about the time they axed the rc.conf (like FreeBSD uses) is when I lost interest. It's a good one if you want to customize every little thing from the ground up, though.

[MrMen]

It's true that losing the rc.conf was a big hurt for me.

It breaks probably more often, but if you follow carefully the update news on website, you have rare issue.
And with time, small issues are easily solved.

[_rubik]

Does/has anyone here run plan9 or any of the variants. I've considered giving it a try for the longest time, but I really can't see a reason to. It's mostly dead in the water with the exception of  /r/unixporn.

[xtrafrood]

Does/has anyone here run plan9 or any of the variants. I've considered giving it a try for the longest time, but I really can't see a reason to. It's mostly dead in the water with the exception of  /r/unixporn.

Fossil file system? Venti file system? Acme text editor? Father of Wmii?! Holy frijoles, if only X11. Albeit, Plan9 is an interesting (wikipedia) read, it appears that even Inferno (sucessor to Plan9) was abandoned in 2015.

http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/downloads.html

[iri]

Currently I surf around on an old laptop using Devuan but want to change it to OpenBSD.

How do you like Devuan?

[templanet]

Currently I surf around on an old laptop using Devuan but want to change it to OpenBSD.

How do you like Devuan?

I don't feel like it is different to Debian in user experience, though I was not a long term Debian user. If you have ever used Debian it should be the same. Devuan is just Debian without system d.

[Findecanor]

I upgraded to Ubuntu Mate 18.04 LTS last week on x86-64. The new kernel has the Meltdown patches. It appears to me that it takes longer to boot. It used to boot in under 30 seconds. Now it takes about 50 seconds to login screen.

Back in the early '90s, my Amiga booted to desktop in 30 seconds and back then I thought that was a long time ... and it had a 14 MHz CISC single-core CPU and mechanical harddrive. No machine I have had after that has started up any faster.

Edit: My x86-64 machine does have a SSD, just not a NVME SSD.