| > Using Void on my main desktop has been fun and I've learned a lot about how modern Linux systems fit together whether I liked it or not, because the instructions for using ZFS root at that time involved starting mostly from scratch. This is why I used Slackware 20 years ago. Slackware then tried to compete with Ubuntu and Fedora and IMO lost its way. > How does Alpine compare in the day-to-day business of using a computer, do you suppose? For day to day usage I think there are similairities, but I can share some reasons I prefer Alpine: - Not rolling release, possible to stick to a version and just get security updates - Focus on minimization. A minimal Alpine install is about 500mb, 700 after I install X and my WM and a few other core things. A void install was something like 1.2gb even trying to keep it minimal. - Because Alpine, IMO is more dedicated to musl, the ports to musl have more care behind them and seem to work better, just anecdotal maybe biased experience. - I prefer apk over xbps, one thing xbps can't do afaik is search files in packages, e.g. apk search library.h will return a result if it exists. - I still feel void gets in the way more than it needs to. Installing or overriding a bootloader and custom kernel was easier in Alpine then void, only barely, but enough I noticed. That's probably it. |
If you do prefer rolling release, you can use the edge channel instead.
That’s a nice thing about Alpine; you can pick between stable releases or rolling release depending on what fits best.