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I have used Alpine Linux for a long time even before they switched to musl libc, and I really liked it. However, I have now stopped using it because of the situ

I have used Alpine Linux for a long time even before they switched to musl libc, and I really liked it. However, I have now stopped using it because of the situation with security updates. Very often critical security issues will not be patched for weeks and desktop software like Firefox can go months without being updated. I would really love to use Alpine Linux again for my servers and desktops if the situation improves, but now it's simply too dangerous to depend on it.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
You might check out Void Linux (just in case you haven't already): they have a musl variant and it's more desktop-oriented than Alpine.
- efiecho 8y ago
  I actually switched to Void Linux after having used Debian on the desktops for some time last year and I will say it's a near perfect Linux distro.
craftyguy 8y ago
They seem to be understaffed, and would probably benefit from having additional maintainers.. You could always volunteer.
- efiecho 8y ago
  Yes this is probably the problem, and I think the maintainers do everything they can. I was not writing the post to criticise Alpine as I really like it, but people need to take the missing security updates into consideration before they start to depend on Alpine for important things.
  - techntoke 8y ago
    Arch is another good option to consider that receives frequent updates. However, Alpine package contribution isn't that challenging; but I'd like to see more CI integrations to automate the heck out of package updates.
    - efiecho 8y ago
      I often look at the wiki pages for Arch as they are really good, but I will not use systemd so Arch is not for me.
      - shakna 8y ago
        Switching Arch over to OpenRC isn't overly difficult. [0] (A package and a kernel parameter). Or there's the fork [1] where that is the default. [0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenRC https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenRC [1] https://artixlinux.org/faq.php https://artixlinux.org/faq.php
      - JdeBP 8y ago
        In addition to the others mentioned, I shall mention Thomas Caravia's Archnosh. * http://repo.or.cz/archnosh.git http://repo.or.cz/archnosh.git
  - sjellis 8y ago
    > I was not writing the post to criticise Alpine as I really like it, but people need to take the missing security updates into consideration before they start to depend on Alpine for important things. I tried Alpine Linux and was very impressed, but have always resisted using it for container images because they do not publish CVEs or seem to have much process around security.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago

You might check out Void Linux (just in case you haven't already): they have a musl variant and it's more desktop-oriented than Alpine.

efiecho 8y ago
I actually switched to Void Linux after having used Debian on the desktops for some time last year and I will say it's a near perfect Linux distro.

craftyguy 8y ago

They seem to be understaffed, and would probably benefit from having additional maintainers.. You could always volunteer.

efiecho 8y ago
Yes this is probably the problem, and I think the maintainers do everything they can. I was not writing the post to criticise Alpine as I really like it, but people need to take the missing security updates into consideration before they start to depend on Alpine for important things.
- techntoke 8y ago
  Arch is another good option to consider that receives frequent updates. However, Alpine package contribution isn't that challenging; but I'd like to see more CI integrations to automate the heck out of package updates.
  - efiecho 8y ago
    I often look at the wiki pages for Arch as they are really good, but I will not use systemd so Arch is not for me.
    - shakna 8y ago
      Switching Arch over to OpenRC isn't overly difficult. [0] (A package and a kernel parameter). Or there's the fork [1] where that is the default. [0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenRC https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenRC [1] https://artixlinux.org/faq.php https://artixlinux.org/faq.php
    - JdeBP 8y ago
      In addition to the others mentioned, I shall mention Thomas Caravia's Archnosh. * http://repo.or.cz/archnosh.git http://repo.or.cz/archnosh.git
- sjellis 8y ago
  > I was not writing the post to criticise Alpine as I really like it, but people need to take the missing security updates into consideration before they start to depend on Alpine for important things. I tried Alpine Linux and was very impressed, but have always resisted using it for container images because they do not publish CVEs or seem to have much process around security.