When comparing Solus vs OpenRC, the Slant community recommends Solus for most people. In the question“What are the best rolling release Linux distributions?” Solus is ranked 12th while OpenRC is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose Solus is:
Which means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rolling release
Which means you don't have to suffer from version to version updates that can break it.
Pro Easy installation
The installation procedure for this distribution is quite simple. It's GUI based and all you have to do is to follow the instructions given by the installation window itself.
Pro Modern desktop environment
The default desktop environment used by Solus is called Budgie and is quite nice and minimalistic.
Pro Stable
The system itself is very stable. All packages in the repository seem to be carefully picked, well prepared and run stable.
Pro Responsive
System boots quickly and stays responsive. Does what operating system should do, and does it really well.
Pro Most stable Rolling Release Distro
Pro Exclusively for desktop systems
Pro Great package management
The software center makes it really easy to install the latest software through Snappy and Flatpak. Including third party software.
Pro Rock-solid Distro
Very stable and well curated.
Pro Lightning fast boot time
Pro Seamless packages
It may not have the most obscure packages, but the packages it does have is a good number of everything a Linux user needs. Gamers, developers, desktop users, etc. all have the necessary packages and then some. The packages themselves are integrated perfectly and are very well updated.
Pro Default experience is clean and easy
The default desktop experience on the Budgie version is very clean and streamlined. Although the Budgie DE isn't the most customisable, but it's customisable enough for me to recreate the desktop style of ElementaryOS with the dock and bar at the top.
Pro Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers
So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that.
Pro Well curated software
The software is well curated in the repos, you have access to flatpaks and snaps, so virtually, all the software you'll ever need is there for you.
Pro Friendly community
The only community who values the newcomers. Very helpful community.
Pro Built from scratch
Pro No feature creep
OpenRC follows the UNIX philosophy of 'do one thing and do it well', while it's true that it has more features than sysvinit, it does not stay away from its primary function with unnecessary added features.
Pro Extremely simple
All configuration is done via shell scripts and symlinks. Shell scripts can then use various specialized utilities to ease the development of init scripts.
Pro Fast
OpenRC builds on top of sysvinit and adds some more useful features (like parallel booting) while still the simplicity that sysvinit is know for. Because of this it generally boots faster than other init systems, especially when parallel booting is enabled.
Pro UNIX-Like
Does one thing and does it well.
Pro Less dependency creep
Using OpenRC does not lock in a distribution by providing specific NON-POSIX extra services which programs then would rely on.
Pro A very balanced compromise
Basically OpenRC doesn't replace SysV init, but rather works with it, providing features that SysV is lacking while taking advantage of its benefits. It's also used by a fair amount of reasonably popular distros and is well supported and developed.
Pro Very efficient on system resources
Uses multi-core and ram very efficiently.
Pro Portable
It can be ported to other UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems.
Pro Flexible and extensible
I can add a new startup script for most cases in under five minutes. The ability to quickly insert new applications into the system is a big help.
Pro Not bloated
Pro Deterministic
It always initializes a system the same way; if OpenRC booted and ran a system properly today, it will boot and run properly tomorrow, and the next day.
Cons
Con Not much software
There is not much software available.
Con Lack of software in repositories
There is a lack of software in the repositories. This is the only OS where I have had to build some applications from source or install from the app's site within the first month os usage. Though this is most likely because the distro is still relatively new.
Con There is often a black screen after update
Con An upgrade breaks the system quite often
Con Forums are not very friendly
Con Systemd
Con No USB Image writer
Con The default desktop environment is not very customizable
Maybe because it's a relatively new project still in its infancy and this may be fixed in the future, but Budgie is not very customizable. You can only change the theme and wallpaper.
Con Slow development
Con Software a bit slower to launch than for other distributions
Con No socket activation
OpenRC does not have socket activation yet. It will be added in the future though.
Con Not widely offered across distrubutions
From Distrowatch, only ten distributions (of which 8 Linux, 1 BSD) officially support OpenRC, and offer it through their standard repos.