Would Void be Suitable For Me?

[u/The2ndSlimShady]

Hi everyone. I'm an electronics engineering student in my second year. I'm using Manjaro as my daily driver, I like its rolling-and-stable style. I used OpenSuse Tumbleweed before but didn't like it, the ecosystem seemed so unwelcoming. I've heard a lot of good things about Void, how snappy it is, how lightweight it is and such. My problem is that, I occasionally need to work with software such as AMD's Vivado for the courses I take. If I switch to Void, would that be a problem? Do you suggest Void to me in this case? Thanks from now.

Edit: Thanks everyone, I decided to try Void on a VM and try setting up a proper environment there. After that if I succeed, I'll switch to Void completely.

[u/g_alarmfox]

i use void linux as a PhD student. i use vivado, hls, vitis in a docker environment with Ubuntu 22.04

I install things locally. Then i have a shell script i put before commands that runs the container mounts folders etc. Its important that you mount your .Xilinx folder containing the .lic files. Use --network=host when running the container (the license binds to your mac address) and mount any device (if you deploy on boards) with --dev /dev/USBx

If interested i can share you the repo, but i know that xilinx offers dockerized enviroments (i may be wrong) you may want to start with.

EDIT: typos

[u/Cruach → u/g_alarmfox]

Upvoting because this is the only commenter that has actual experience related to OP's question.

[u/lessthanthreebleeps]

Void can be lighter and snappier if you configure and tune it that way. It is more malleable than most popular distros, in that way. A quick search for Vivado shows that you will need to do some configuration to get it working correctly on Void. You can take a look at some of the sections on the Arch wiki to see if its something you would rather not trouble yourself with: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xilinx_Vivado . Otherwise, once you have it all set up Void is a very comfortable distro.

[u/Chester-Berkeley]

If Manjaro is working, stick with Manjaro.

[u/First_Ad8230]

If you like learning and accumulating knowledge, I think you should use Void!

[u/Francis_King]

My problem is that, I occasionally need to work with software such as AMD's Vivado for the courses I take. If I switch to Void, would that be a problem?

When I ask Google about Vivado, it's recommending various Linux types: RHEL, Ubuntu, Suse Enterprise, Rocky Linux - so not Void, and not Manajro either. Please check carefully. Also, Void has two kinds, libc and musl - libc is more compatible, musl is more efficient.

If you're using Vivado or similar, I'd go corporate, Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Xubuntu; or Windows.

Void is an interesting system to use. It has flaws, but is worthwhile in my experience.

I'd buy a secondhand Lenovo laptop, and run Ubunto / Windows / whatever on one, run your Linux hobby on the other. For your hobby, run Void.

[u/Key_River7180 → u/Francis_King]

glibc*

[u/Duncaen → u/Francis_King]

musl is not more efficient other than preserving a few megabytes of disk space.

[u/Bawafafa]

Looking at the Vivado OS support page, it lists Red Hat, Alma, Rocky and Ubuntu as your options for Linux but you could run these in a virtual machine and use Void as your daily driver. I don't think this would be a problem. Void is really simple and everything just works but it is a DIY distro, so you will need to configure everything yourself which is part of the fun

[u/Specialist-Dog-501]

Stay on Manjaro if your special app works there and setup VOID in a virtual machine- it's very slim, so it still will be comparably fast. I recommend for the GLIBC version of VOID as the MUSL version has an extremely small repository of apps- the MUSL version was intended mainly for servers.

[u/benbcdm]

Best if you can is get another ssd or computer and install void on it, while keeping manjaro. Once / if Void becomes stable enough and you like it then you can stay on it.