10 replies to this topic

[saturnian]

Trying the Devuan 2.0 ("ascii") live session from a flash drive. Very good. I wasn't expecting to be saying this, but Devuan might be replacing MX as my favorite distro for live sessions. For what I want/need in a live session, this release looks as close to perfect as anything I've seen. Great job.

[securitybreach]

Never heard of that one before.

[wa4chq]

I haven't heard of this one either.  I casually browse DistroWatch and missed it.  https://devuan.org/
Looks nice!

[saturnian]

The MX live session is loaded with tools; it's a great distro to have sitting around on a flash drive. I'm impressed with Devuan's simpler approach, though. I need a live session only a few times each year, and MX has been great for that, but I don't use the extra tools that MX ships with, so Devuan might be a better fit for me. This is no knock on MX; I'm just surprised that Devuan's live session looks so good!

[abarbarian]

http://forums.scotsn...topic=79474&hl=

Guess you guys missed posts 18 and 19 at the above then

[Hedon James]

Devuan is basically just Debian without systemd.  About 3-4 years ago, there was a big brouhaha in the Debian camp regarding the replacement of init software with either systemd or Upstart (Ubuntu's init software).  The vote was delayed several times for further debate (by a rather large and vocal contingency who were adamantly opposed to systemd, on the basis that it violated Unix principles of "do one thing and do it well").  Ultimately however, systemd won by a 5-4 vote.  Ubuntu, still sore and stung by the Linux community's rejection and perceived vitriol towards their Unity DE and Mir projects, decided to scrap Upstart.

And a whole slew of developers left Debian, with loudly stated intentions of forking Debian and removing ALL traces of systemd, calling it "spyware".  They decided to call their new project Devuan and it probably took them about 1 year to work through Alpha versions before they produced an acceptable RC and shortly after, Devuan 1.0.  Devuan is now a "parent distro" to some other Debian-based projects who are anti-systemd, such as Refracta.  That's about all I know.

What I do NOT know is what init system they are using.  I would imagine SysVinit or OpenRC, but perhaps they cobbled together their own init.  Dunno...

[saturnian]

I compared the Debian 9.5 (Stretch) live session, with Xfce, to the Devuan 2.0 (ascii) live session, also with Xfce. At first glance, they look about the same, but Debian doesn't include GParted, and the sources.list file is not set up by default. Devuan includes GParted, and everything's set up so that, for example, when I ran sudo apt install inxi, that command worked out-of-the-box.

I like Devuan's black and gray color scheme, reminds me of CrunchBang and the BunsenLabs Hydrogen release.

For some reason, Debian has never gotten totally on board with the whole "live" thing. Other distros still offer better live sessions, in my opinion, and so does Devuan.

I've never installed Devuan, but a friend of mine says that it's a quick and easy installation. I am not interested in switching from Debian to Devuan for my hard drive installatiions, though. I'm okay with the systemd infestation, lol.

[saturnian]

Some good links at this page, by the way: https://devuan.org/os/packages/

[wa4chq]

abarbarian, on 03 September 2018 - 08:33 AM, said:

http://forums.scotsn...topic=79474&hl=

Guess you guys missed posts 18 and 19 at the above then

LOL....I know I did!

[securitybreach]

abarbarian, on 03 September 2018 - 08:33 AM, said:

http://forums.scotsn...topic=79474&hl=

Guess you guys missed posts 18 and 19 at the above then

Well that  was last year, I can barely remember last week....

[saturnian]

Hedon James, on 03 September 2018 - 08:54 AM, said:

Devuan is now a "parent distro" to some other Debian-based projects who are anti-systemd, such as Refracta.

Check this out: https://devuan.org/o.../devuan-distros