Distro-hoppers anonymous

Colonel Panic · 2020-10-25 19:44:51

I've noticed a couple of people talking about Gentoo. The best way I've found to get Gentoo up and running is to use ExGent, a Swedish distro based on Gentoo and using the LXQT window manager;

http://www.exton.se/?p=2674

I'm currently in Slackware, having installed an August edition of Slackware Current from Eric Hameleers' mirror (he's better known as AlienBOB). I've had a couple of teething troubles with it - for example, Amarok kept freezing the display so I've had to switch to the more basic Gmplayer instead - but I think I'm finally there with it now and it's working the way it's meant to on the desktop.

At the moment I use Fluxbox for the window management duties, dmenu for menuing and Gkrellm for system monitoring; it all looks a bit "old school" but I'm OK with that and it's stable and light on resources.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2020-10-25 19:46:44)

Döbbie03 · 2020-10-26 02:07:10

Colonel Panic wrote:

I've noticed a couple of people talking about Gentoo. The best way I've found to get Gentoo up and running is to use ExGent, a Swedish distro based on Gentoo and using the LXQT window manager;

Thanks for the tip.

manyroads · 2020-10-26 12:49:57

@Dobbie Others have had good success with CloverOS and Calculate

Colonel Panic · 2020-10-26 19:45:46

Dobbie03 wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
I've noticed a couple of people talking about Gentoo. The best way I've found to get Gentoo up and running is to use ExGent, a Swedish distro based on Gentoo and using the LXQT window manager;
Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome Dobbie. Sabayon is also based on Gentoo, but it doesn't seem to work well on my machine (as usual, your mileage may vary).

Döbbie03 · 2020-10-27 05:32:59

I don't really like Sabayon. I did try Clover OS many months ago. Cool project.

cog · 2020-10-27 05:58:20

Sabayon is to Gentoo what Manjaro is to Arch, except it’s not any good like Manjaro is.

cog · 2020-10-27 06:01:54

Gentoo is actually really good right now. You can do openrc these days or systemd. The most current paper cut with gentoo is rust if you use Firefox and or other rust stuff. You can also get away with not hacking to compile a kernel for your specific hardware either by using their newer kernel ebuilds if you don’t have that kind of investment.

cog · 2020-10-27 06:04:23

Speaking from building a nice gentoo system back in February with git based portage and what not. The thing with Gentoo I always run into is my final result doesn’t do anything better than a debian or Arch based install other than I controlled everything.

cog · 2020-10-27 06:14:58

Sorry to keep posting..

I honestly think the best setup is Arch on the desktop and Ubuntu LTS on the server. Debian would be the best if all the server software ex: Nextcloud targeted debian instead of Ubuntu. PHP versions and what not. (There’s a current notification on nextcloud that they won’t support debians version of PHP on the next release but instead Ubuntu’s, they clearly have a platform they are targeting)

I personally just use Ubuntu LTS on everything because I work on limited bandwidth over my phone in a wierd ass America while living rurally in the mountains. Arch is almost slower on updates though. Ubuntu is always updating the kernels and Firefox for CVEs where Arch just pulls in new versions. That’s with XFCE or a WM setup.

Last edited by cog (2020-10-27 06:26:17)

Döbbie03 · 2020-10-28 05:10:45

cog wrote:

except it’s not any good like Manjaro is.

Not badmouthing Manjaro at all but I have not had any type of good experience with Manjaro. Admittedly this was about 5 years ago but it was the most unstable system I had ever used.

manyroads · 2020-10-28 14:37:34

FWIW I think current manjaro software is very nice. HOWEVER, the Manjaro Forums are among the Grumpiest places around. It's perplexing.

I like your Forums the best (plenty of good geeks over on AL running all manner of non-standard wms). These are nice as well....

Ah, such are the travails of wandering geeks.

Last edited by manyroads (2020-10-28 15:09:19)

hhh · 2020-10-28 16:42:39

^ It's a conscious effort on our part, one that I've tried to instill since the #! forums. No one is too n00b, no distro is the wrong distro to run if you get it running. I was always completely perplexed by the elitism of most of the distro forums (Arch and Debian back in the day, especially). New users asking for info and getting hammered for one reason or another. And then the forum wonders when "The Year of the Linux Desktop" will arrive.

Döbbie03 · 2020-10-29 04:40:14

manyroads wrote:

HOWEVER, the Manjaro Forums are among the Grumpiest places around

I have not experienced that myself, though it has been many a year since I participated at the forum there. The recent blow up with Jonathan there and the mass exodus confirms what you say.

I like your Forums the best (plenty of good geeks over on AL running all manner of non-standard wms). These are nice as well....

That is something I wanted to bring with me from this incredible gathering of great people. This is without a doubt one of the nicest and friendliest forums I have been involved with, I wanted my forum to reflect this. I think we achieved that. We have weeded out the shit stirrers and the horrible people (not that we had many) and we now just have good people who contribute. Just like here.

I'd love to see some of the hardcore BL'ers testing out Nates wm. It's the damn business.

manyroads · 2020-10-29 17:30:41

I have been building a dwm based Devuan-ceres (unstable) desktop of late. It is built using MiyoLinux as the base ( Openbox/Devuan-ceres)

So far so good.... I have a dual headed OB-dwm rolling non-systemd "debian" setup.

DeepDayze · 2020-10-29 17:42:36

manyroads wrote:

I have been building a dwm based Devuan-ceres (unstable) desktop of late. It is built using MiyoLinux as the base ( Openbox/Devuan-ceres)
So far so good.... I have a dual headed OB-dwm rolling non-systemd "debian" setup.

How is the performance with that systemd-less setup?

manyroads · 2020-10-29 19:18:45

@DeepDayze... I prefer to live in a non-systemd world, if possible. The spirit of most wms is minimalism; I like that.

I have no problem having MX, antiX, Devuan all idle at about 300MB with either OB or dwm. Now if you add dropbox and a browser with a few tabs... memory 'evaporates' fast. A fully loaded dwm (ff,dropbox, conky, .... with everything) and systemd runs at about 2.5GB; without systemd I run at just under 2GB. In either environment, you can plan to see an addition ~ 500MB for each open browser tab, after the first.

Because I have 24GB on all my laptops, memory isn't really the issue for me. I simply find non-systemd 'faster subjectively' and more fun.

PackRat · 2020-10-30 17:43:22

Dobbie03 wrote:

I'd love to see some of the hardcore BL'ers testing out Nates wm. It's the damn business.

+1 for dk. Nate does awesome work, and window manager hopping is more fun than distro hopping 8o

Distro hopped to ArchLabs almost 3 years ago just to see what Dobbie was cooking up and have it installed on at least one machine ever since:

dk window manager, ArchLabs -

link to full image

Last edited by PackRat (2020-10-30 17:48:25)

unklar · 2020-10-30 18:12:44

manyroads wrote:

...
I have no problem having MX, antiX, Devuan all idle at about 300MB with either OB or dwm.
...

I think it is one of those legends about systemd being "heavier" than sysVinit in memory consumption.

On the left you see helium and on the right lithium in idle around 300MB.
More questions?

Link

hhh · 2020-10-30 23:29:28

Well, to be fair, when your total RAM at idle is under 400MiB, a 130MiB difference appears significant.

But as I've said before, open Inkscape, LibreOffice Writer and Firefox and the difference becomes fairly trivial.

cog · 2020-10-31 03:02:42

^totally agree

#1061 2020-10-25 19:44:51

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#1062 2020-10-26 02:07:10

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#1063 2020-10-26 12:49:57

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#1064 2020-10-26 19:45:46

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#1065 2020-10-27 05:32:59

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#1069 2020-10-27 06:14:58

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#1070 2020-10-28 05:10:45

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#1071 2020-10-28 14:37:34

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#1072 2020-10-28 16:42:39

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#1073 2020-10-29 04:40:14

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#1079 2020-10-30 23:29:28

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