Devuan GNU+Linux Review

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Review of Devuan GNU+Linux powered by the Slant community.

Systemd

SpecsUpdate

Based OnDebian

Default Desktop EnvironmentXFCE

Init-SystemSysVinit, runit or OpenRC

Package Managerdpkg with apt, aptitude or apt-build

OS FamilyGNU/Linux

Main UsageServers, Industry(Stable/Oldstable) | Desktop, Multimedia(Testing/Unstable)

OriginWorldwide

Release ScheduleLong-term support (stable edition) and rolling release (testing and unstable editions)

Initial Release2016

Official Supported Architecturesaarch64, armel, armhf, i386, ppc64le, amd64

Release TypeBinary

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Pros

Pro
Stability

It is stable like Debian.

Pro
It's Debian

Devuan is Debian just without systemd, it just mirrors the the Debian archive and repacks packages that have hard dependencies on systemd.

Pro
Excellent for normal people

It is easy to use and is a good choice for beginners.

Pro
No Systemd

Pro
Most decent look amongst other XFCE distros

Default XFCE theme is unique of all the XFCE distos including MXLinux, Xubuntu etc.

Cons

Con
Difficult to install on non-free hardware

Unlike Debian, Devuan offers no unfree netinstall media, so if your system needs unfree drivers (e.g a laptop or a tablet), you'll have to download the Debian firmware on a separate USB.

Con
No systemd

Con
Fragmentation

Forked distributions like Devuan and Artix fragment the Linux community and hurt the original project. Debian users who do not want systemd should use Slackware or BSD instead.