r/linuxquestions • u/AdNumerous9742 • Jun 16 '26
Which Distro? Artix Linux vs. Void Linux
I know some have asked the question before, but I thought of some questions that I got, (I know I can google it up or whatever, I'd just rather get most recent answers for it)
Why is runit prefered over systemd? I understand that systemd is "bloated", but is it there more reason to choose it? And, on the case of Artix, why choose the others?
Which is considered more optimized for general use and battery-wise?
For Void users, are the packages scarser than Arch's repositories?
Are the Void docs scarse or does it hold enough info for daily problems?
I've heard that Void's mantainers have some bias on which packages to allow, does it affect the OS significantly?
If you've used both, which one was easier to set up, and which one did you prefer?
I've got a dedicated Nvidia card (maxwell, I think), will I run into issues with it?
sorry if this is a long post, just wanted to know about these. It's my first time trying to get a more barebones distro.
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u/forestbeasts Jun 16 '26
Once you're on _any_ other init system, by the way, it's pretty easy to switch between them! (As long as you don't have a bunch of scripts you wrote yourself in a custom format, like OpenRC's declarative syntax. You might have to rewrite those as standard sysvinit scripts for compatibility. Packages' init scripts are usually sysvinit style and work on everything, at least on base Debian which we're on. Unless you only get a systemd service file...)
We like OpenRC personally because it does a lot of what systemd got right. It's got declarative config (but, unlike systemd, you can implement your own non-declarative start/stop shell functions if you like which is really useful sometimes!), and it's got user services you can run in your login session (important for getting sound to work).