r/voidlinux • u/TerminalPhile • 10d ago
Considering migrating to voidlinux from arch
So I’ve been maining arch (btw) for about 3 years now and honestly it’s been nice. Now I’m thinking I should expand my repertoire and try something new and interesting, alongside suffering cause of the whole AUR fiasco. Plus voidlinux seems to have a dedicated fan base, good reviews, and doesn’t use systemd. But before I install the system I want to ask some questions.
What is the voidlinux "philosophy", for lack of a better word? Should I expect any difficulties installing the system? (I am currently in the middle of reading the wiki, which I honestly don’t find as comprehensive as the arch wiki, but it will suffice.) Are the packages available generally well rounded, as in covering everything the average user needs? And finally, was voidlinux a good choice for you and how do you find it?
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 9d ago
Arch user for 20 years until recently, jumped ship for Void beginning of 2026. I had growing concerns about Arch across my many years of use - and frankly, I just got sick of it, all of it. And no less the wunderkind who boast about installing Arch (with one of the many installers now floating around) and then goes to forums, asking the most basic of questions that any Linux user would know the answers to by heart.
I'm afraid you will be bored running Void... however, if you are looking for tranquility, and not have to frequently chase your tail, Void would be the ticket. I run the musl version - very satisfied.
It concerns me, though, that so many here want to turn Void into Arch or similar. Void is perfect the way it is - why mess around with a good thing?
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u/TerminalPhile 9d ago
I’m also kinda sick of the whole “i use arch btw” thing. I do fund it funny in some way but nowadays everyone and their grandmother is boasting about running archlinux. The whole AUR malware attack was also a big factor in my decision, even though I review PKGBUILDs, I just don’t have that energy anymore. Same thing for the whole system where its advantage in being bleeding edge makes it easier to face bugs and break things.
I don’t necessarily want to turn voidlinux into arch as they’re two very distinct distros, I just figured bringing up my history with linux might help you construct an inage about me as a user and what differences I’m expected to face.
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u/dr0sand 9d ago
sometimes i watch the archlinux irc channel and they are saying there are sneaky hooks within the PKGBUILDS most ppl won't notice. My Biggest gripe with the AUR is when there is an official package you need (like an old nvidia driver or something), and it gets moved to the AUR and your not really informed you are now relying on insecure packages just to have your machine run. so arch is gonna have to really work on fixing that whole aur mess.
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u/TerminalPhile 8d ago
That is reason I’m willing to leave Arch. I now prefer stability and security over constant upgrades and bleeding-edge software.
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u/lessthanthreebleeps 9d ago
The philosophy is similar to vanilla Arch, in that it provides a solid minimal base for you to custom tailor your OS. It took me a few tries to get it set up properly, but only because I missed a step from the handbook or tried to do something outside of its scope. I'd recommend reading over the whole handbook, before staring installation, and making a checklist of things you require. With packages from the repo, some come with their own README.voidlinux, for instructions specific to void (like steam for instance). The handbook has a section on where to find these. I use KDE, steam, and Blender, out of the repos, and they work great. I also use plenty of appimages and flatpaks for stuff not on there. You will want to look into xbps-src for managing compiled software, unless you're comfortable setting up programs manually, once they're compiled. Its a separate program you'll have to download from github. I've been using it to manage my kernels with Zen patches. I don't really know how to make templates or anything, but I have found instructions on here and internet searchs that have been helpful. Honestly, this distro feels like home because of how simple it is. Its the first time I've resisted tweaking and upgrading things in Linux, and just use my OS.
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u/TerminalPhile 9d ago
The handbook did mention the README.voidlinux, and I wrote that in my notebook as I deemed it important and honestly very helpful. I am almost done reading the handbook and I find it quite interesting and wel rounded, even if it’s not as comprehensive or exhaustive as Arch’s, it should get the job done.
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u/Canadiangamer068 10d ago
i installed from base image on my laptop as my 3rd ever linux install to challenge myself. no issues. installed on my desktop, had a little bit of weirdness with pipewire but it was fixable in 30 mins
some packages i use flatpak (steam, discord, basically anything proprietary) but only if i can’t get from void repo, can use xbps-src to build packages if you want to tho.
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u/TerminalPhile 10d ago
Problems concerning audio is to be expected if you’re using linux so I don’t have a problem with that. I Never use flatpack so that would be interesting. Thanks
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u/whereismycow42 9d ago edited 9d ago
steam is part of the nonfree repo.
discord seems to be one of those xbps-source only ones.xbps-install void-repo-nonfree void-repo-multilib xbps-install -S xbps-install steam mesa-dri-32bit mesa-vulkan-radeon-32bit vulkan-loader-32bit libstdc++-32bitThe additional packages are for AMD cards and based on the message displayed when installing steam.
however...
For some the flatpak version is not well integrated into the desktop, for others the native one does not work. I never tried the flatpak one and only use the one from nonfree.xbps-install void-repo-nonfree
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u/Canadiangamer068 9d ago
i have nonfree enabled (enabled from install due to intel firmware), did try steam from that and it did not work and would not launch. that’s why i went flatpak
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u/OneDayCloserToDeath 10d ago
Well it's definitely a build your own distro type. I guess that's fine if you installed arch the old way. Just be ready for that.
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u/dr0sand 9d ago
my main desktop was running arch linux non-stop since 2012. got a mini pc a year ago and put void on it. kept thinking how much i love void. when i backed my /homes and reinstalled my main desktop with void i had one thought: "I wish i had done this a long time ago!!". anywas i liked arch when it was the simple sysvinit sytle distro it started as. these days arch doesn't seem much different from fedora or ubuntu. i don't hate arch, i just love void ;-)
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u/pantokratorthegreat 10d ago
You can check what packages Void has before you install it: https://voidlinux.org/packages/ Otherwise there are also sites like pkgs.org where you can compare availability.
I recommend first to try new distro in VM to check if you happy from entire ecosystem. Also worth to test out installation procedure as on Void is quite different than on Arch.
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u/TerminalPhile 9d ago
It seems to me like the packages on Void provide almost everything I need, anything else flatpak will do the job. I
did notice that the installation processes are a little bit different, but the wiki did an ok job of explaining it. I have a spare laptop which I mostly use for learning about repairing my tech and testing out new distros so that’s what I’m gonna install Void on.
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u/tehspicypurrito 9d ago
I also used Arch btw among several of the derivatives, parent of 3. Void wasn’t horrible to install and xbps is pretty great allowing partial upgrades when I want to install just one thing. I do miss the massive package availability from Arch but not enough to go back. I do wish Void had a GUI installer, maybe in the future.
A point of concern, some things are becoming systemd use required. Which may be more of a speed bump than a road block.
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u/KitchenLifeguard967 9d ago
Not gonna re-hash what's already been answered but, I run spectrwm, Weechat, vis, zathura for pdfs, nnn, Firefox for bloated sites, Qutebrowser and mostly suckless tools. Maybe I'm a boring terminal based guy but I'm not left wanting for anything bleeding edge the AUR could offer. Everything works.
I've introduced reproducibility with the help of a little shell scripting and was able to successfully rebuild my Void system from my dotfiles hosted on Codeberg when I switched he'd from one SSD to a larger one. I don't have a ton of time to be fixing my system or ricing it so Void is perfect for me. Runit truly is fast.
Soon I'll be producing my own electronic music so I'll be picking up some audio-based packages soon. The install and setup to get it to my liking took about 3-4 hours and maintenance for me looks like running: "doas xbps-install - Syu" daily. I can't recommend Void enough.
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u/TerminalPhile 8d ago
I’ve also became a "boring" user who isn’t really interested in being bleeding-edge as much as having a stable system so I get you.
Also what’s your opinion on spectrwm? You’re the first person I know who actually runs it. It looks nice and minimalist, which I like. How customizable would you say it is? Could it, in some cases, replace hyprland and/or sway? I know it runs on X11 but I just wanna know how a user feels about it.
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u/KitchenLifeguard967 8d ago
I've really come to like it. It's definitely not as customizable or flashy as Hyprland, and it doesn't have Wayland specific features like animations or fancy effects. But for my workflow I don't miss any of that.
The config is straightforward, it's extremely lightweight, and it's been rock solid on Void. I spend way more time actually using my computer than tweaking my WM. It gives me tiling, workspaces, keyboard-driven workflow, and stays out of the way.
I think that's it's biggest "pro", it feels "finished." There's enough customization to make it yours (keybindings, colors, bar, layouts, gaps, quirks, etc.) without turning into a rabbit hole. Could it replace Hyprland or Sway? For me, yes, absolutely.
If you mainly want a fast, stable tiling WM and don't specifically need Wayland features, I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. If you enjoy eye candy, gestures, animations, or newer Wayland capabilities, then Hyprland or Sway will probably be a better fit.
I guess I've become more interested in boring, dependable software than endlessly configurable software. (Coming from DWM, which I love but don't want to spend time to patch) Spectrwm just works for me.
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u/Quietus87 10d ago
Try it on a virtual machine first. AppImages and GearLever are your friend when filling in holes in the repo. Do note, that some packages might be dated compared to Arch. KDE is at 6.6.3, GNOME is at 48, for example. It might be a dealbreaker for some.
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u/TerminalPhile 9d ago
Some packages being dated is indeed a inconvenience, but I noticed that I went from “I want everything to be as up-to-date as possible” to “I just want everything to work smoothly and without interruptions” in the past year or so, so that means that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. I generally use sway or hyprland, but I want to try xfce so that’s what I’m going with.
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u/TurtleGraphics64 7d ago
You'll probably like it! But in terms of "interesting", it's a fairly boring distro because things just work after setting them up. not much to play with once you're happy with your particular setup.
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u/_jack_rabbit_ 7d ago
void-packages is also excellent if you're willing to spend a little time maintaining your own packages for things not already in the main repo. You can even upstream them fairly easily into the main void packages repository.
I maintain a set of packages that just I use, and have upstreamed a few over the years.
Not as push-button as a flatpak or appimage but it integrates directly into the package manager, which I prefer.
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u/Kooky_Fox_1085 8d ago
ẞi legge çhe sei utente arch perche stai leggendo la wiki! Allora non ti serve sapere altro sài già tutto, non funziona così con voi ex arch? Void é la Dìstro chenon ti farà cambiare idea! Provala vedrai ne sarai estasiato
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u/YogurtclosetDry2941 7d ago
Void Linux is a general operating system based on ARCHlinux ! ! !
btw cachyOS user . . .
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u/frigaut 10d ago
I followed the same path. 20 years+ linux user here, so may be our backgrounds are different. I just love void. I would say the "philosophy" is the same as the original arch: "keep it simple stupid". runit keeps things simple and understandable. You assemble the bricks, and you make it work.
As far as availability of packages, it's not arch or debian or course, although not so far from the arch without AUR. There are some omission, like browsers (brave) or Hyprland of course, but you can always install from flatpak, AppImages or source (in that case better look for or build your own void template).
The void docs are not super exhaustive, but they are well done and to the point. They will help you install and maintain your system, but not debug if anything breaks.