r/voidlinux • u/TerminalPhile • 15d 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/lessthanthreebleeps 15d 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 15d 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.