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75 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Why Chimera Linux"
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date = 2024-07-04T08:48:55+10:00
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#[extra]
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#updated = 2024-06-04T07:49:36+10:00
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I received a reply to my [Tech Stack 2024](@/posts/2024/tech-stack/index.md)
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post asking: Why Chimera Linux? I wrote a response that turned out longer than
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anticipated and figured I may as well post it here too. I'm not trying to
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convince you to use Chimera with this post, just note down why it appeals to
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me. That's really the crux of it: there's dozens of distros out there all with
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different goals and values and Chimera really speaks to me, for you it might be
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something else.
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<!-- more -->
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Below is a lightly edited version of my email response.
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---
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I like [Chimera Linux] because it's the closest distro I've found to what I would build
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if I was building my own (something I've tinkered with a few times over the
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years).
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I like that it is a comparatively small and easy to understand system without
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giving up quite as much as you do with Alpine Linux, which to be clear, I like
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as well and use on my server. The [userland from FreeBSD][userland] is capable and easy
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to understand code wise, [Dinit] provides an init system with process monitoring,
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dependency tracking, and a service file format that doesn't require writing
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shell scripts like in FreeBSD and Alpine. [musl] is designed to be secure and
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uses quite straightforward implementations of libc functions while sticking
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closely to the POSIX standard. See the recent OpenSSH vulnerability where
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[remote code execution was not possible on musl based systems](https://fosstodon.org/@musl/112711796005712271).
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I really like the [cbuild] system for building packages. It uses a real
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programming language (Python) to define packages and share library code. This
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makes package templates easier to write and understand over Make and shell
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based packaging systems. Packages are built in an isolated sandbox, preventing
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them depending on the host system accidentally—this is definitely an advantage
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over building packages on Arch. Most run-time dependencies are automatically
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determined so you don't have to list all those out in the package template.
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[apk] is fast (although not as fast as Pacman when doing updates). It has a
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clever way of tracking packages where [the world file][world] specifies all the packages
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that should be present and it uses a solver to determine what needs to be
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installed/removed. The neat bit is that when you `apk del` a package it can remove all
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packages that are no longer specifically requested, whereas in Arch it's easy
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to end up with orphaned packages that are dead weight and require [manual
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maintenance to clean up](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks#Removing_unused_packages_(orphans)).
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Chimera is also a rolling distro (like Arch) so things stay up to date. There's
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a low barrier to submitting new packages and updates, you don't have to have a
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special "committer" or "developer" account, you can just open a pull request
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like any other open-source project. Packages in the repo are built
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automatically with a build bot server for all supported architectures, whereas
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I believe Arch is still working towards automated packaging. Additionally first
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class support for multiple CPU architectures allows me to run the same system
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on different devices I use such as Raspberry Pis, RISC-V single board
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computers, and hopefully eventually my new ARM based Snapdragon X Elite laptop.
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Having written that all out I guess Chimera feels like a distro that is
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full-featured but also simple enough that you can poke around and understand
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all the parts. It's also easy to get involved with the project.
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[cbuild]: https://github.com/chimera-linux/cports/blob/master/Usage.md
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[cports]: https://github.com/chimera-linux/cports
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[musl]: https://musl.libc.org/
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[Dinit]: https://davmac.org/projects/dinit/
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[apk]: https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/apk-tools
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[userland]: https://github.com/chimera-linux/chimerautils
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[Chimera Linux]: https://chimera-linux.org/
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[world]: https://chimera-linux.org/docs/apk/world
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