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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Interesting distro to try, or to try again (lemmy.cronyakatsuki.xyz)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello, I have been a linux user for close to 6 years now and I have changed my distro quite a bit ( especially in first few months of starting out linux ).

I have wen't from ubuntu, xubuntu, fedora, peppermint, arch, artix, ... in first few years. After that I have settled on arch for close to 2 years. After that long time on arch I decided to try out and test interesting distro's for at minimum 6 months every year ( and if I didn't like them I would go to arch back ) until I found something else I could main because I have found a few issues with arch that I could accept but would become annoying from time to time.

Across the two year's I started this yourney I have used gentoo ( used it for a year but then the lack of a proper retroarch package made me change the distro, plus the 3+ hours compile times when updating specific software ( looking at you qt-webengine and firefox ) ), then I choose to try out nixos which I used for 3/4 months before all that main maintainer debacle and splitting of the team I wen't back to arch because I didn't wan't a distro I'm using falling appart on me.

And here I am now, another year is soon to start and I'm searching for another different type of a distro to try out that does something differently compared to most distros, even willing to try out nixos again if the situation has stabilized now.

My only hard requirement is that the distro need's to be able to play games ( as in steam and gog ).

Edit: just to clarify, I'm chaning distro's on a yearly basis for a learning experience and fun.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gentoo has binary packages now, you might want to try it again. There are retroarch packages in the overlays. Otherwise, interesting distros I know of that you haven't listed yet are

Void
Guix System
Gobo Linux (unfortunately very low on maintainers so probably not usable as a daily driver, but it is to me the most interesting of these)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That defeats the whole purpose of using gentoo tho.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

you’ve mentioned this twice in the comments & now i’m curious! do you kind elaborating a bit more? i’m still getting a handle on all the diff distros & functionalities.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Gentoo is a distro that you compile all the packages ( atleast used to be that ) where you compile packages with flags that optimize those for your exact cpu.

Also allows you to strip out features from packages while compiling like X11/wayland uf you don't use either.

This can help a lot in general performance of your system.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can use binary packages for x86_64-v3 and it will already use a lot more modern CPU instructions, and it will still compile single packages from source if you change the USE flags to something the binhost doesn't have.

It certainly doesn't "defeat the whole purpose of using Gentoo".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I used to strip out more than half the features those packages provided that I didn't need, so it does for my usecases.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What percentage of packages?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

100%, I use to do global use flags at '-*' and then set minimal amount of flags till I get something working.

Spent a whole day doing that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

“100%” which would include those that either don’t have any use flags or all of them disabled by default/masked where -* wouldn’t do anything. pkgconf for example. Uh huh, yeah right.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And how much time did you save from the performance gains?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wouldn't know, because at the time I was by my pc maybe 30 mins a day because of my job, so I just let my system compile in my 13 hours work time so just never tested that stuff out.

I do know that it felt snappy always.