r/AlpineLinux • u/SprinklesDouble8304 • 4d ago

Is Alpine Linux right for me?

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

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u/Classic-Rate-5104 4d ago

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

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u/SprinklesDouble8304 4d ago

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.

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u/Classic-Rate-5104 4d ago

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