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It's great for packaging a project in containers. The package management is actually pretty good specifically for anything server/service related, you just have

It's great for packaging a project in containers. The package management is actually pretty good specifically for anything server/service related, you just have to be a bit more hands on since it doesn't come with all of the bells and whistle dependencies. The only issue I've really had is libc vs musl for some of my dependencies. Its _tiny_ compared to ubuntu. I haven't looked at daily driving it because it doesn't feel like it's really meant for desktop use (although I'm sure it'll work), Something like arch makes more sense if you want something more lightweight while also having decent documentation and support for desktop use, and better packaging for things like chrome, vscode, etc. Especially because of musl I suspect you'll run into a lot of issues in general. EDIT: Also most images like python have alpine variants now which is really nice.

KMnO4 4y ago
> Also most images like python have alpine variants now which is really nice. You probably don’t want to use Alpine for Python containers. Many packages don’t provide wheels for Alpine (the Python version of prebuilt binaries), so you’ll have to build them from source, countering the space savings. You’re often better just using something like Debian-slim or something.
- throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
  I would use whatever Alpine-y containers the official Python docker hub has, and switch to a Debian-based one if there are bugs. Building extra wheels isn't necessarily an issue, you can squash layers with a multistage build from scratch.
rezonant 4y ago
I hit some nasty segfaults in musl, with gRPC above it in the stack trace while doing some rather heavy YouTube API operations-- opted to switch to a glibc distribution rather than track down that mess. The segfaults were gone after that.
- spyremeown 4y ago
  I was doing some very similar things (gRPC with Alpine containers) and also had the segfault things. `gcompat` solved all of them.
  - rezonant 4y ago
    ooh good to know in a pinch
Arnavion 4y ago
>I haven't looked at daily driving it because it doesn't feel like it's really meant for desktop use (although I'm sure it'll work), Many people use it on desktops. Also many people use postmarketOS (phone-specific packages on top of Alpine repos) on phones.
- saagarjha 4y ago
  It’s probably a bad idea to use this for your desktop, since Alpine isn’t particularly performance-focused.

KMnO4 4y ago

> Also most images like python have alpine variants now which is really nice. You probably don’t want to use Alpine for Python containers. Many packages don’t provide wheels for Alpine (the Python version of prebuilt binaries), so you’ll have to build them from source, countering the space savings. You’re often better just using something like Debian-slim or something.

throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
I would use whatever Alpine-y containers the official Python docker hub has, and switch to a Debian-based one if there are bugs. Building extra wheels isn't necessarily an issue, you can squash layers with a multistage build from scratch.

rezonant 4y ago

I hit some nasty segfaults in musl, with gRPC above it in the stack trace while doing some rather heavy YouTube API operations-- opted to switch to a glibc distribution rather than track down that mess. The segfaults were gone after that.

spyremeown 4y ago
I was doing some very similar things (gRPC with Alpine containers) and also had the segfault things. `gcompat` solved all of them.
- rezonant 4y ago
  ooh good to know in a pinch

Arnavion 4y ago

>I haven't looked at daily driving it because it doesn't feel like it's really meant for desktop use (although I'm sure it'll work), Many people use it on desktops. Also many people use postmarketOS (phone-specific packages on top of Alpine repos) on phones.

saagarjha 4y ago
It’s probably a bad idea to use this for your desktop, since Alpine isn’t particularly performance-focused.