6 ms·

Strange choice. There's no shortage of minimalist desktop-oriented distros out there. Even if you specifically want a musl-based distros, Void Linux has a minim

by piaste 4y ago

Strange choice. There's no shortage of minimalist desktop-oriented distros out there. Even if you specifically want a musl-based distros, Void Linux has a minimal base image which is probably a better starting point. I don't see much advantage in forcing an embedded/VM-oriented distro to do desktop work - how much fun are you going to have with device drivers, for example? The only reason I can see to use Alpine specifically is to test on a system that's as close to production servers as possible. But that's what VMs are for.

nibbleshifter 4y ago
Alpine was a desktop/server distro long before it became a container distro (and it became a container distro because it was light as fuck).
yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> Strange choice. There's no shortage of minimalist desktop-oriented distros out there. Even if you specifically want a musl-based distros, Void Linux has a minimal base image which is probably a better starting point. Why not? Alpine is a perfectly good distro. > I don't see much advantage in forcing an embedded/VM-oriented distro to do desktop work - how much fun are you going to have with device drivers, for example? What? Alpine is a Linux distro; it has the same drivers as everything else. And it packages desktop stuff just fine; I've never had a problem using it. EDIT: I should qualify "never" - I've had less trouble using Alpine as a desktop than Void, let's say. Some programs aren't portable enough to handle musl, but that's a different issue.
moffkalast 4y ago
Linux devs: "I've got it, let's make another minimalistic GUI that doesn't have enough functionality for daily use." Also Linux devs: "Wait, why is nobody using Linux on desktop?" Half kidding since those lightweights do have use cases, but on the other hand KDE only barely gets close to the levels of functionality and customization that Windows offers and it's about the heaviest display manager out there. Meanwhile Gnome is both slow and just about completely hardcoded hah.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  > Linux devs: "I've got it, let's make another minimalistic GUI that doesn't have enough functionality for daily use." As a person daily-driving it, I promise it does in fact have enough functionality for daily use. And are you sure those are the same people? My impression is that there are two groups; minimalist hackers who want an ultra-light system and build that, and people who want a system that's easy to use for the masses and build that (KDE, GNOME, XFCE). And because it's FOSS and mostly unpaid, people work individually on the things that they directly value, hence the wide range of options.
- smitty1e 4y ago
  Needs a custom package manager and text editor for the trifecta.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  Hacker News: We should have less hacking and more real work!
- nibbleshifter 4y ago
  I mean, what actually are the features you need from a WM/DE?
- bacchusracine 4y ago
  >Meanwhile Gnome is both slow and just about completely hardcoded hah. Come back to the Mate desktop. It's the original Gnome desktop, just like you remember it in 2010, only ported to GTK3. I personally like the Ubuntu-Mate version but the guy running that project has been recently working to port over the specific changes between that and stock Mate desktop to Debian so that will also be a possibility soon. Give it a look at: https://ubuntu-mate.org https://ubuntu-mate.org
- doubled112 4y ago
  Agreed. We don't need more desktops, we should improve the ones we have. Speaking of improvements, if you haven't tried KDE in a while, it has become considerably lighter in recent years. It is quite a bit snappier as well. Skipping the indexing features, it gets pretty close to Xfce, MATE and LXDE in resource usage.

by piaste 4y ago

nibbleshifter 4y ago

Alpine was a desktop/server distro long before it became a container distro (and it became a container distro because it was light as fuck).

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago

> Strange choice. There's no shortage of minimalist desktop-oriented distros out there. Even if you specifically want a musl-based distros, Void Linux has a minimal base image which is probably a better starting point. Why not? Alpine is a perfectly good distro. > I don't see much advantage in forcing an embedded/VM-oriented distro to do desktop work - how much fun are you going to have with device drivers, for example? What? Alpine is a Linux distro; it has the same drivers as everything else. And it packages desktop stuff just fine; I've never had a problem using it. EDIT: I should qualify "never" - I've had less trouble using Alpine as a desktop than Void, let's say. Some programs aren't portable enough to handle musl, but that's a different issue.

moffkalast 4y ago

Linux devs: "I've got it, let's make another minimalistic GUI that doesn't have enough functionality for daily use." Also Linux devs: "Wait, why is nobody using Linux on desktop?" Half kidding since those lightweights do have use cases, but on the other hand KDE only barely gets close to the levels of functionality and customization that Windows offers and it's about the heaviest display manager out there. Meanwhile Gnome is both slow and just about completely hardcoded hah.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> Linux devs: "I've got it, let's make another minimalistic GUI that doesn't have enough functionality for daily use." As a person daily-driving it, I promise it does in fact have enough functionality for daily use. And are you sure those are the same people? My impression is that there are two groups; minimalist hackers who want an ultra-light system and build that, and people who want a system that's easy to use for the masses and build that (KDE, GNOME, XFCE). And because it's FOSS and mostly unpaid, people work individually on the things that they directly value, hence the wide range of options.
smitty1e 4y ago
Needs a custom package manager and text editor for the trifecta.
tinus_hn 4y ago
Hacker News: We should have less hacking and more real work!
nibbleshifter 4y ago
I mean, what actually are the features you need from a WM/DE?
bacchusracine 4y ago
>Meanwhile Gnome is both slow and just about completely hardcoded hah. Come back to the Mate desktop. It's the original Gnome desktop, just like you remember it in 2010, only ported to GTK3. I personally like the Ubuntu-Mate version but the guy running that project has been recently working to port over the specific changes between that and stock Mate desktop to Debian so that will also be a possibility soon. Give it a look at: https://ubuntu-mate.org https://ubuntu-mate.org
doubled112 4y ago
Agreed. We don't need more desktops, we should improve the ones we have. Speaking of improvements, if you haven't tried KDE in a while, it has become considerably lighter in recent years. It is quite a bit snappier as well. Skipping the indexing features, it gets pretty close to Xfce, MATE and LXDE in resource usage.