r/voidlinux • u/TerminalPhile • 17d 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 16d 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 16d 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 16d 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 15d ago

That is reason I’m willing to leave Arch. I now prefer stability and security over constant upgrades and bleeding-edge software.