Systemd-Free, XBPS-Powered Void Linux Releases New Images

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Systemd-Free, XBPS-Powered Void Linux Releases New Images

If you are looking for a new Linux distribution to experiment with, Void Linux is one of the interesting ones that is an original creation and community driven that often doesn't receive the attention it deserves. Void Linux is built off its BSD-licensed XBPS packaging system, is a rolling-release platform, uses runit as the init system instead of systemd, opts for LibreSSL in place of OpenSSL, optional musl libc usage, and has a wealth of other changes...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Void-Linux-November-2018

[Michael_S]

I ran it a few years ago and had a fine experience, I'll take it for a spin again.

[TheOne]

IMHO all these anti systemd stuff is useless... Systemd actually makes things easier by providing easy to use standard tools to administer the system that will be always available, for instance, with timedatectl you get nice easy to use NTP or hostnamectl, journalctl, etc... which makes it easier. Also systemd unit files are much better than writing custom shell scripts for startup. Every time the Linux ecosystem gets something good a lot of people resist it. Maybe they are been paid by companies who want Linux to stay fragmented making its grow slower on the desktop, ... Who knows...

[jrch2k8]

IMHO all these anti systemd stuff is useless... Systemd actually makes things easier by providing easy to use standard tools to administer the system that will be always available, for instance, with timedatectl you get nice easy to use NTP or hostnamectl, journalctl, etc... which makes it easier. Also systemd unit files are much better than writing custom shell scripts for startup. Every time the Linux ecosystem gets something good a lot of people resist it. Maybe they are been paid by companies who want Linux to stay fragmented making its grow slower on the desktop, ... Who knows...

This is fine, Void being decent is a nice place to send all the lennart haters and "systemd is a huge project because i don't understand how git works" paranoid crowds, so maybe they will stop trolling those that actually works and understand and appreciate how nice systemd is

[Jedipottsy]

IMHO all these anti systemd stuff is useless... Systemd actually makes things easier by providing easy to use standard tools to administer the system that will be always available, for instance, with timedatectl you get nice easy to use NTP or hostnamectl, journalctl, etc... which makes it easier. Also systemd unit files are much better than writing custom shell scripts for startup. Every time the Linux ecosystem gets something good a lot of people resist it. Maybe they are been paid by companies who want Linux to stay fragmented making its grow slower on the desktop, ... Who knows...

Void has always been runit based. It was originally a 'pseudo netbsd' using linux. They've just never moved away from runit. It doesnt use sysvinit, and imo is much easier/simpler than systemd.

[jpg44]

Its important to clear up misconceptions about systemd because almost everything being said by critics about it is false. systemd does not take away your ability to use sysv init scripts. They will run perfectly well and fine under systemd. systemd is also not monolithic and not against "unix way". It is more decentralized that a purely sysv system, because of the DBUS based design. There are 40 or so separate binaries to the system and you can use dbus to allow different components to communicate. It is not "unconfigurable". It has more configuration control than sysv init since you can watch for any series of events over dbus. You can write your own service process in any language that responds to any series of events in any manner, which actually increases flexibility well beyond the simple sequential start up of sysv. systemd is basically dbus based with independent processes watching a dbus for events generated by other processes, it can then use its own code to make decisions about whether to spawn a service and then announces the spawning of the service on the DBUS. In fact, the main argument that people seem to have is that systemd provides *too much* configuration control, far more than sysv. This is a bunk argument however since you can still use sysv, the service files systemd offers are also simple and good for most use cases.

systemd has its own service file format, this is included for ease of use, but is actually peripheral to the system, you dont have to use the service file format since you can write your own dbus daemon in any language you want that contains code that can decide when a service can be started with arbitrarily complex rules. However the service files can save time and are suitable for most use cases, they can be simpler and easier to read than a procedural code, so it can actually make things easier to maintain, so its a good idea to use service files

If you have long used ubuntu, systemd is nothing new anyway. systemd does the same things that upstart did, the systems are very similar, based around the same basic concepts.

[Danielsan]

Void Linux is really cool, the only defect it has is a very limited amount of packages available you might miss some particular package you need for your workflow.

[bison]

I ran it a few years ago and had a fine experience, I'll take it for a spin again.

That was my experience as well. I think I may try using it as my main system for a few weeks and see how it goes.

[Michael_S]

Void has always been runit based. It was originally a 'pseudo netbsd' using linux. They've just never moved away from runit. It doesnt use sysvinit, and imo is much easier/simpler than systemd.

No actually, Void started with systemd and then moved away from it.

I use systemd. I like systemd.

But I like choice. I think it's bad for the tech ecosystem when a single product dominates the market. Single web browser, single init system, single kernel, single programming language, anything. Even if that product is a fantastic product, like Chromium, systemd, Linux, and Javascript (ha! yes, that was a joke). So while I support systemd, I also support runit and GNU Shepherd.

[dreich]

Void had to drop systemd due to the latter's lack of support for musl. The same applies to Alpine.