Void

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Reader supplied reviews for Void Average rating 9.2 from 157 review(s) What are your thoughts on Void? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- 20230628202210012021093020191109201811112017100720150221 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 20230628 Rating: 10 Date: 2024-01-19 Votes: 16 I've tried them all, well, most of them, and keep returning to Void Linux, one of the few independent Linux distributions. What brings me back? Void is a rolling release that aims for stability - really, only openSUSE Tumbleweed is a peer there. Void has amazing tooling; once you get to know the system, discover tools like the `xtools` package, `xbps-src` from the void-packages system, and more. Another gem is ZFSBootMenu - Void Linux is a first-class citizen there; check it out - easy ZFS as root with or without encryption. What you get is a solid, general purpose, Linux system you can turn into anything you wish. It's understandable, well-documented in the concise Void Handbook, and reliable. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20230628 Rating: 6 Date: 2024-01-09 Votes: 0 Pro It starts quite quickly, the feeling of speed remains during work. Plus the "gratification" of getting rid of the "class enemy" systemd. Cons Like all distributions without systemd, it has big problems with lightdm = one of the few desktop managers that can also launch a virtual keyboard at login. This is the most annoying, even if at first lightdm works, as many applications are installed, the probability of lightdm not working increases. The second big problem is represented by Pulseaudio which does not keep the configuration after booting, including with Paprefs. The third problem is no printer drivers, especially for Lexmark. In conclusion, it doesn't beat Debian and it's not for me. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 20230628 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-11-25 Votes: 6 Void Linux is a general-purpose, unique, independent and lightweight Linux distribution. Void Linux is not influenced by poor upstream decisions, unlike other forks out there (looking at you, creepy Ubuntu), and often do not chase the mainstream side of things because of this. It also offers 'musl' as an alternative libc to 'glibc'. 'runit' init system is great. It is simple, intuitive and does not get into your way like the behemoth 'systemd' (although some 'systemd' components except for the init have to be used). It is also easy to configure, and the default init scripts made by the Void Linux contributors generally work out-of-the-box. 'xbps' is also surprisingly fast and has a consistent set of features. It is definitely cleaner than Debian's 'apt', and the default repositories provide good download speed. Packages are compiled with several hardening options and level 2 optimization enabled by default. 'xbps-src', a part of 'xbps', allows for building packages from source and possibly, optimise them for the user's specific CPU architecture. Void Linux is truly both a "stable" and "rolling release" distribution. In theory, a full system update of a few years old Void Linux system is easy and should not break the system. Void also maintains necessary patches for packages in its repository, and the continuous build system will update any package as soon as the 'void-packages' GitHub repository is updated. ...the 'void-packages' GitHub repository? Yes, and updates to packages require manually changing the version on the template file, and often rewriting of the patches. Unfortunately, many packages are orphaned because there are not enough maintainers or they are not generally useful. For example, as of the time of writing this review, LLVM version 17.0.5 had already been released, yet the latest version on the Void repository is 15.0.7. Another example is GCC. Version 13.2.0 had already been released for 3 months, but Void repository only has GCC 12.2.0. A more practical example is the Chromium browser, which has been 2 release behind (currently 119). Does this affect normal users? Generally speaking, probably not. You can download Chromium or LLVM on the project's official websites, anyways, or switch to Firefox. Yet, it is the package manager's job to manage dependencies and update the whole system easily, and having to use external programs renders the package manager less useful than if you use the packages provided by the Void Linux repository. After all, this is voluntary work, so if you use Void and want Void to thrive, expect to contribute back to the project. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 157 reader reviews of Void...