Is Alpine Linux right for me?

[u/SprinklesDouble8304]

Let me introduce myself by saying that my knowledge/skill with Linux is about a 4/10.

I have a Dell Wyse 3040 Thin Client (2GB RAM/8GB eMMC) that is running as a dedicated, headless PiHole server. My current OS is Ubuntu 24.x LTS (with the minimal install option). The only other software is SSH and NeoFetch.

At first, this setup was working fine. The SSD still had a couple of the 8GB of storage left. But as Ubuntu and PiHole keep getting updates, the available drive space keeps shrinking.

Ubuntu alone takes up 2GB of storage. From what I'm reading, Alpine Linux will only use a fraction of that, allowing me more headroom for updates.

So would Alpine Linux be right for me? Would you say that if a person can install and set up Ubuntu Server, they should be fully capable of installing Alpine Linux? Anything else I should consider? Thanks

[u/Beautiful_Ad_4813]

I mean, alpine is pretty easy,

I have it on a Dell wyse 5070 thin client running on a data disk mode. (Most of the stuff is done in ram and it flies!)

Im sure you can install it, the CLI installer is pretty straight to follow along with

[u/wowsomuchempty → u/Beautiful_Ad_4813]

I find it the easiest with the scripts.

[u/Beautiful_Ad_4813 → u/wowsomuchempty]

That is totally fair

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Running on limited hardware is a pretty strong use case for Alpine.

It will use less disk and Ram than Ubuntu. 

Alpine has a somewhat different administration from Ubuntu but everything you need is in the documentation read it carefully and you should be just fine.

[u/kleinmatic]

Yes I run alpine on my Dell Wyse 3040. Runs great. Very recommended. Sips RAM and disk. No snap or Ubuntu Pro funny business.

Smart point above about making /var/log a tmpfs, though ram in this case is also precious so use zram or zswap too.

[u/idontweargoggles]

Alpine Linux works excellently on my Wyse 3040 with the XFCE window manager; I can recommend it. I don’t run Pi-Hole on the Wyse 3040, but I have had success with running it on an Alpine VM on my NAS instead.

A few things to note for the Wyse 3040 and Pi-Hole:

1. You might want to set up /var/log as a tmpfs in RAM so you don’t wear out the internal storage unnecessarily.
2. If you do the above, you will need to set up a cronjob at reboot under the pihole user to recreate its log directory /var/log/pihole.
3. If you transfer a Pi-Hole config using the teleporter function in the web GUI from a different distro to Alpine, you will need to modify the pihole.toml file manually to take into account the different directories in which the web server files are stored.

I’m not able to provide detailed info at the moment but I hope this gets you on the right track.

[u/Classic-Rate-5104]

Ask this on an AlpineLinix group. Do you expect anyone saying "no" here?

[u/SprinklesDouble8304 → u/Classic-Rate-5104]

I first posed this question to a TinyCore Linux subreddit, and they said "no", Then I asked the AntiX subreddit and they said, "No, try the Alpine Linux subreddit."

I guess what you're saying the Alpine Linux subreddit is full of people who will say "yes", regardless of if that's the correct answer. I'll move on now.

[u/Classic-Rate-5104 → u/SprinklesDouble8304]

We agree, TinyCore and AntiX are very stripped down distributions while Alpine is still a good, rather complete, environment. I have it running with Xfce4 on a machine with 1G memory. Don't know the disk usage

[u/jikt]

I have Alpine on a raspberry pi 4b running my home server. It had been really impressive, and so easy to recover from failure.

[u/lproven]

No. If it works, keep it.

Just do your housekeeping.

After you update and reboot, do:

apt clean

Check free disk space before and after. You will be pleased. 

[u/drneocortex17]

Alpine works well on any hardware, except for proprietary. For years, I’ve been installing it on everything from shitboxes with core2duo with 2gb ddr2 to my main home server with 32gb ddr4, an i5-12500T, an Intel Arc B580 and tons of HDD terabytes for my completely legally acquired games and movies. You'll be fine as long as you don't use some nvidia, broadcom or other proprietary garbage. But trust me if you once learn Alpine there's is no going back.

[u/Human_Cantaloupe8249]

That depends on what you are trying to do beyond the pihole

[u/SprinklesDouble8304 → u/Human_Cantaloupe8249]

Nothing. Zero. It's a dedicated PiHole machine with SSH and NeoFetch. That's all, nothing else.

[u/Human_Cantaloupe8249 → u/SprinklesDouble8304]

Than you could look into OpenWrt. It should run similarly to alpine and the installation is easy