The reason why I can’t use GNU/Linux (for now)
I’m not a good writer nor a proper english speaker. So, if you find an error please let me know and I’ll edit it later.
Also, please, tell me my argument is wrong.
Last year I started to feel some discomfort with most of the GNU/Linux distributions I’ve been using or trying.
I spent a lot of time this year jumping between different distributions without getting good results in my search.
Now you may be thinking “God dammit, tell us your problems!”
Summarizing:
1) Most of the “*-based distributions” are totally worthless and don’t have anything new.
2) The migration to systemd.
3) I wasn’t able to find a distribution that works like a system to me.
1) Most of the “*-based distributions” are totally worthless and doesn’t have anything new.
Okay, this may sound rude to some people. But really, we can choose between 200 distros, while 100 of them are Debian/Ubuntu-based, 50 of them are Fedora/CentOS-based and 10 of them are based on Arch Linux.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against forking distributions. For example, Ubuntu is an amazing fork from Debian. They took their own way with their own repositories and made some big differences. Devuan is also good, because it have a system-level change.
Now, the difference between Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu and Ubuntu Mate is that every single one of those are just a Desktop Environment change.
Of course, between using Unity and Mate, I would pick the second one.
But instead of creating “your own Ubuntu flavour”, you can make one that let you pick one or another DE from the installer. Of course it’s more work for a single team but is way more attractive.
The same happens with forks like Antergos or Archbang. Making Arch Linux flavours is the easier thing you can do. You just have to do a Pacman repository and add it to the /etc/pacman.conf of the iso (which you can do with Archiso) and then writing a simple shell script that does everything you need.
2) The migration to systemd.
I won’t write something long here. Because this is not an anti-systemd post.
I don’t really care if a distribution have or not systemd. If somebody tell me to try X distribution, I do without paying attention of the init.
What I don’t really like about this is that a lot of distributions are moving to systemd as it was the best thing ever. Some of the did it even when most of the users were against the change.
For example, Slackware had some users just because it had BSD-style init scripts. But since they moved to systemd, they are like any other distribution but without dependencies handling.
UPDATE: The user “beardyjay” on lobste.rs told me that Slackware didn’t started using systemd. He is right. I made a big mistake right here. Sorry, Slackware devs!
3) I wasn’t able to find a distribution that works like a system to me.
It’s really hard for me to explain this. But what I mean is that every single distribution just feels like a bunch of packages glued to the kernel.
Changing between a distribution or another is not an alternative to me now, because I realized that the main difference between one or another is the package manager.
Do you like how Kubuntu looks like? Well, you can make Arch Linux look like that and the biggest difference you will get at the end will be the package manager.
I just started thinking that there aren’t so many distributions with big differences. Of course they exist, like Crux, Alpine and Void.
And I’m still annoyed because Void Linux seems to be the only one that jumped to LibreSSL.
UPDATE: @quobit and the user “catwell” on lobste.rs told me that Alpine Linux also migrated to LibreSSL. And now that I remember, Lunar Linux have the recipe on its repositories too, but it still being optional from OpenSSL.
I can’t believe how fast it was decided to start using systemd without thinking on start using LibreSSL too, that’s a really bad movement in my opinion. One has a security advantage, the other one writes binary logs.
So, the point of this section is that there aren’t so many distributions that take their own way from the rest to build a different system. That’s where BSD has a point, they make full systems with their own tools, instead of doing “flavours”.
I’m using FreeBSD.
Because OpenBSD wasn’t detecting the network card of my new laptop.
So I installed FreeBSD and I feel wonderful except for the fact that connecting to a Wi-Fi network is “una patada en las pelotas”.
But someday I will be back on Linux. Maybe it’s time to start my own distro. Or using another one without complaining. I don’t know.
UPDATE: Thanks Laura Chimera for your correction!
