I recently had to do some Docker related things which meant that it was time to retry Linux. My first idea was to install Debian SID and Void Linux - using dm-crypt and LVM on a spare laptop, and I wanted to tell the story of my time using each, as maybe you can get something out of it. Let'a get on with the story now.
# 1. Setting up Debian
I had no idea if the GUI installer for Debian was going to cause an issue, so I went for the next best thing: a KDE image and debootstrap. I was pretty confused by a lot of things, examples of which being setting rd.luks.uuid, locales, and I thought I install systemd in the initramfs as if it were Arch but I eventually gave up and used /etc/crypttab with it working. I had a Debian with full KDE setup in 2 days.
# 2. Setting up Void
I also set up Void while booted into Debian because I had prepared LVM for that when setting up Debian. I had to variate from the Void Linux disk encryption setup because using LUKS1 just felt weird. But I did borrow the crypttab setup from Debian which worked with a caveat: I had to decrypt twice. This was fixed by someone in the voidlinux libera channel thankfully. I had a nearly fully working Void with KDE setup at the end.
# 3. Issues with Void
With everything setup so that PipeWire could start with D-Bus, it did not start. I had another issue related to wireplumber and pipewire-pulse because I forgot to link their configs to `/etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d`. Other than that, no notable issues with Void.
# 4. Issues with Debian
I really like packaging things, and thought of adding a package I really wanted to Debian, but I really cannot wrap my head around packaging for Debian. I get it somewhat, use the `dh-*` set of tools to make a package for Meson, cargo, etc. but I'm still kind of stumped outside of that. I really like FreeBSD ports, NixOS packages and XBPS templates from Void as they are really simple to work with. I won't say that it's awful to work with Debian's packaging as I really have not had enough time to understand it.
# 5. Next stop, NixOS
I was previously a NixOS user, and I really need to revisit it as I used to really like it and haven't used it in a while. Additionally, I am also a maintainer for a few nixpkgs packages myself, so it would probably be a good idea for me to use NixOS to have the nicities of it while also contributing back to nixpkgs more. I like it for the same reasons as everyone else.
# 6. Why not FreeBSD
I love FreeBSD, and would like to put it on everything I own, but I had to use Docker. Installing Docker in FreeBSD looks really messy. I had no choice other than to set up Linux, on thankfully a spare laptop and not my main machine. I'll be honest, if I didn't need Docker, I would just use FreeBSD on that laptop.
# 7. The End
That's my chaptered semi-rant about my journey with 2 Linux Distributions, and any options I may also pick. Honestly, FreeBSD is not as complicated in my opinion due to documentation, tooling and ease of use of said tooling. Jails, bhyve and other nicities are also pretty cool. Tha ks for reading.
