The Linux ecosystem is vast and diverse, offering a multitude of distributions to suit every need and preference. With hundreds of distros to choose from, it’s a pity that most are rarely mentioned while the popular ones are constantly being regurgitated.
This thread aims to celebrate this diversity and shine a light on smaller projects with passionate developers. I invite you to pitch your favorite underappreciated distro and share your experiences with those lesser-known Linux distributions that deserve more attention.
While there are no strict rules or banlists, I encourage you to focus on truly niche or exotic distributions rather than the more commonly discussed ones. Consider touching upon what makes your chosen distro unique:
- What features or philosophies set it apart?
- Why do you favor it over other distros, including the popular ones? (Beyond “It just works.”)
- In what situations would you recommend it to others?
Whether it’s a specialized distro for a particular use case or a general-purpose OS with a unique twist, let’s explore the road less traveled in the Linux landscape. Your insights could introduce fellow enthusiasts to their next favorite distribution!
Void Linux! It's a very simple, completely independently distro without a dependence on a corporate funded project. It uses runit in place of systemd (I don't mind systemd but it seems a lot of people just like runit better for being smaller, neater, and very reliable, which is cool)
It has a "stable rolling release" update model and provides vanilla packages. And the package manager xbps can install pre-compiled binaries or function more like portage or BSDs ports system for building from source (full disclosure, I've never used any of those nor the functionality in xbps so I don't understand it super well). Oh and the community is helpful, and the documentation is pretty strong and doesn't always just give you commands to run blindly (as someone who is trying to get more confident in the terminal I find that helpful)
The project has a very "less is more" philosophy which I really appreciate.
My one disappointment is that there isn't a package kit implementation for xbps so I can't use the graphical software store provided by my desktop environment :(
I wanted to try Void but I had trouble getting it to work with encrypting the root partition, despite following some of the guides I found. If I could get that to work and from there get an atomic setup for backups, I'd probably use it on a few machines.
I like the philosophy and honestly would prefer to not have systemd or other massive dependencies. I'm part of the problem though because I am using Fedora now.
I am also a Void user, but will agree that the installation process can be very difficult, especially if you want to set up encryption in ways the standard installer does not support. You have to install it into a chroot (which I believe is how Debian was installed 20+ years ago).
That said, it is a great learning process and really helps you appreciate how awesome xbps is as a package manager!