[Edit: Please talk me out of this wild notion, just in case I fail to talk myself out of it. #TheGrassIsAlwaysGreener ]

I've done a lot of #distroSurfing (especially before 2012 (we're talking 100s near into 1000s of distros).

Recently been contemplating candidate distros for a #DistroChallenge. Prior strong notion, was SliTaz.

Now, currently wistful for CRUX, after seeing some CRUX stuff in someone's emacs init.el I was looking at for the mpv features it had.

CRUX is one of those distros, that, if you use as your dedicated daily driver, you'll grow your knowledge and competence.

Much less "convenient" hard plastic-wrap hiding away more of the inner workings.

You'd be able to take what you learned from CRUX, and be "like a god" in any other distro, capable with much of the lower level userland, more than if you'd just been coddled, as if often the case, with distros intentionally making it easier and simpler for new users naive to anything but the gui that "tends to all their needs" (or so the impression is given).

CRUX linux shares some similarities with archlinux and voidlinux, and perhaps even more so with KISS linux & Carbs linux. Also a lot of BSD style stuff in there too.

I've never daily driven it (~ maybe briefly, not more than weeks, sometime between 2004 and 2014), but from the glimpses I have had, I do get that strong impression of a more coherent and comprehensible system. Though, not familiar enough to say how far that goes... presumably falling far short of the whole system coherence that's soon obvious in OpenBSD (and presumably other BSDs, but again, I've not put as much time or attention into them to say).

CRUX is a lightweight Linux distribution for the x86-64 architecture targeted at experienced Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is keep it simple, which is reflected in a straightforward tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts, and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus is utilization of new Linux features and recent tools and libraries. CRUX also has a ports system which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.

^ says the simple intro blurb on the homepage of their very clean and clear, uncluttered, concise website.

And, seriously, you'll not be lacking for docs. Dare I assert: https://crux.nu/Main/Handbook3-8 is even closely comparable to the arch wiki or gentoo wiki & handbook. [Edit, oops, and, there's https://crux.nu/Wiki/HomePage too.]

The about page continues from that intro paragraph, with:

Unlike other distributions, the primary goal of CRUX is not to be the most popular (read: biggest number of users) or to put as many features as possible into the system. The idea is rather to build a streamlined distribution, targetted at a specific audience which in turn gets a system without compromises. Some of the characteristics of CRUX are:

• KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) concept, applied to both the system and the development process
• Source based package installation using a ports system
• Simplicity over automation
• Targetted at experienced users with compact, to the point documentation
• Native configurations over configuration abstraction layers (think: sysconfig)
• Slim, stripped of unneeded documentation and files (including National Language Support; CRUX only supports the native language the programs were written in, which is english in most cases)
• Up to date features and packages, however no bleeding edge software in the main repositories
• Easy way to extend the system by yourself
• Active community of contributors outside the core development team

The result may not be the best distribution for everybody, but as mentioned above, that's not the goal. If you're part of the target audience however, you might enjoy running CRUX just as much as we do.

Which, every point of that, I find appealing (and, I confess, I think everybody else should find it appealing too, heh).

And speaking of the community... I've never had much interaction with... but in person, I'd be willing to bet they're a thoroughly much nicer bunch than the hostile ego infestations of ~ well, I was going to say the name of the bad example distro, but then realised, that's maybe also unfair to all the good people in that community, to oust them in the collateral damage of a collective punishment via the broad brush, though, you can probably guess which (... btw). ~ https://crux.nu/Main/Community (just mailing list and irc) is laden with nice helpful people, is what I'm saying (/presuming confidently). Because CRUX does not seem likely enticing to those characters who roam around like entitled narcissists (who expect things done for them, never seek to improve against their skill issues, blame others, take undue credit, think they're tech competent because they use stuff made by the tech competent, and so on). CRUX's much more likely to entice a community of peeps who are into problem solving, helping grow their own knowledge and skills as well as of others, are patient, are considerate, are unperturbed by fomo or argumentum-populum (are not sheeple nor totalitarian), and appreciate concise brevity, and so on.

All that's to be done now, is to download CRUX, do whatever necessary backups, and avoid anyone (not excluding self) who may talk me out of it, as I proceed to install CRUX over my elaborate bedrocklinux, and start living the pure CRUX life...

... Do I really want that level of lack of convenience and maintenance workload though? Oops! See! It's starting already... talking myself out of it. (Phew!)

Nahhhh, it'll be really really good. Will teach so much. ... Do it. Do it. ...

I did not realise SliTaz is still going so strong. It's an old fave from my early days with Linux. I tried #SliTaz briefly again a few days ago, and just now seen it mentioned in https://opensource.com/article/19/6/linux-distros-to-try "5 tiny Linux distros to try before you die" while I was looking for a NuTyX tarball... and besides being pleasantly surprised by SliTaz now being rolling:

SliTaz 5.0 Rolling release (weekly) - 06 Apr 2025
SliTaz is now a rolling distro with 2 branches We provide a stable version and a cooking (development) version. Stable will get small refinements and security updates. As usual the Cooking version brings you the latest improvements made by SliTaz developers. - 16 March 2018
Website news archives - 2007-2025

I also saw in that article, one (among many a) feature that contribute to the explanation of why it's still going so strong:

The good news is that the tazpkg command can convert from several packaging formats, including:

Debian packages (.deb, .udeb)
RPM packages (.rpm)
Slackware packages (.tgz)
Puppy packages (.sfs, .pet)
NuTyX packages (.cards.tar.xz)
Arch and Alpine Linux packages (.apk, .pkg.tar.gz, .pkg.tar.xz)
OpenWrt packages (.ipk, .opk)
Paldo packages (.tar.bz2)
Void packages (.xbps)
Tiny Core packages (.tce, .tcel, .tcem, .tcz)

SliTaz is a #lovely piece of kit. Really glad it's going so strong.

http://arm.slitaz.org/rpi/ <- they have rpi arm too btw.
http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/rolling/slitaz-rolling.iso <- and 32bit ! 😮 😀 good distro for #Ancientware #OldComputers 😀
http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/rolling/slitaz-rolling-core64.iso <- and a 64bit of course.

#distro #distros #tinydistros #foss #packageconversion #packagemanager #tazpkg #taz

PS, I remember there's also #tazlito ... like I mentioned... many a feature to keep SliTaz in, and ahead, of the game. It's so tiny, so fast, so clean. Always a joy, in my experience. But then... I've never driven SliTaz as daily-driver. ... But I am honestly considering it for a #DistroChallenge since reading that article, even before I started typing this post, so enthused as I am for SliTaz. ... For context, I'm already over a dozen years deep into bedrocklinux, where I have all the comforts of all my favourite features from each and any of the main distros I install (typically Gentoo, Devuan, Void and Artix, my solid 4 strata regulars, at least)... And SliTaz turns my head. Not just to add it as a strata (as I'm seeking how I'll best want to get #NuTyX imported), but as itself. Raw riding the metal, not hijacked, not a vm, not a container, not even just as a usb, but on the mmcblk0p1. Okies... Ima stahp this ramble... got the gush for SliTaz.

Anyways, just sayin, you don't have to pick just one distro. ;)

... But also, you can. ... And I'm tempted... Distro-Challenge... 2 years living daily-driving SliTaz...