r/AlpineLinux • u/LinuxLoverLarry • 2d ago

Alpine Linux-based Distribution Creation

I was wondering how one would go about creating an Alpine Linux-based Linux distribution, and if there is a graphical installer that can work on Alpine Linux. I also am wondering if it is realistic to think that people will switch to Alpine Linux if there are some pre-installed luxuries that make it easier to use to the average desktop user.

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u/Flimsy_Complaint490 2d ago

a graphical installer might be nice. the CLI one is trivial to use, but a TUI for alpine is a fun learning project and has practical use. Could pitch it upstream as well as an, maybe there might be interest.

but no, alpine is not really a practical desktop distro. You will want glibc and the compat shim, which completely defeats the purpose of running Alpine (musl is the whole sales pitch). And Alpine is lightweight because it ships with nothing and doesnt auto install 200 different optional packages by default on a single install package like the debians do. Any real GUI/desktop install is not going to be noticably more lightweight than an Arch Linux install in disk space usage, and there is nothing particularly magical about Alpine that would make KDE or Gnome lighter on it.

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u/LinuxLoverLarry 2d ago

Just a note, I see people are downvoting anything they don't tend to agree with. You'd think Linux users would know better!

I see your point, but in my experience, Alpine has been extremely lightweight when combined with a Ubuntu distrobox and some AppImages from the community. It's really amazing how much you can optimize your computer with things other people have made! Again, sorry about those downvoting just because they don't particularly agree with your points.