The Linux ecosystem is vast and diverse, offering a multitude of distributions to suit every need and preference. With hundreds of distros to choose from, it’s a pity that most are rarely mentioned while the popular ones are constantly being regurgitated.

This thread aims to celebrate this diversity and shine a light on smaller projects with passionate developers. I invite you to pitch your favorite underappreciated distro and share your experiences with those lesser-known Linux distributions that deserve more attention.

While there are no strict rules or banlists, I encourage you to focus on truly niche or exotic distributions rather than the more commonly discussed ones. Consider touching upon what makes your chosen distro unique:

  • What features or philosophies set it apart?
  • Why do you favor it over other distros, including the popular ones? (Beyond “It just works.”)
  • In what situations would you recommend it to others?

Whether it’s a specialized distro for a particular use case or a general-purpose OS with a unique twist, let’s explore the road less traveled in the Linux landscape. Your insights could introduce fellow enthusiasts to their next favorite distribution!

  • pr06lefs ( pr06lefs@lemmy.ml ) 
    29·
    2 years ago

    I think nixos is still niche, but seems to be gaining momentum. It has some unique features:

    • Every package has its own dependencies, so you can install a 7 year old firefox alongside the latest, and have no interference.
    • Packages with dependencies in common still share them (for space savings).
    • Abandons the HFS, but can still fake it for apps that need it.
    • Can make dev environments that are exactly reproducible across machines, and only exist within a specific shell session. So you can have a project that relies on an out of date version of a compiler, and another that uses the latest, and run both at the same time.
    • Make your own packages that other people can install using a git repo address.
    • The package language can also describe a machine’s configuration; systemd services, default packages, user accounts, etc.
    • You can build and remotely deploy a machine config in one line.
    • You can cross compile a machine config for another cpu architecture, like ARM.
    • OS upgrades are atomic, and reversible. If it doesn’t work out, you can go back to the previous config.
    • No reason to ever reinstall. Recently upgraded a machine that had sat in a closet for 5 years to the newest release. Flawless upgrade.
    • Nixos boasts more packages than any other distro, over 100,000.

    There are certainly downsides - poor docs, confusing core language. Instructions for installing something on say debian will not work on nixos. I do think this style of package management is the future, if perhaps not this specific implementation. It can be a pain but its also super solid.

    • JustEnoughDucks ( JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ) 
      3·
      2 years ago

      More niche? Opensuse Kalpa.

      I started running it and their are some pains like figuring out which layer to install tablet driver software, undervolting software, and kde connect. Seam flatpak still sucks dick and the tray icon for it doesn’t work at all and it needs a ton of modifications to get things to where the native steam runtime just works, but still a fun experiment.

    • ___ ( ___@l.djw.li ) English
      4·
      2 years ago

      That sounds like true freedom, and also like something I wish deeply that I had time and energy to make my daily driver - I’m a purist, but I’m also a pragmatist and i can feel the burnout already.

      Respect for using it as a daily driver - even for a personal only machine, that’s a pretty high bar, especially long term.

  • claymore ( claymore@pawb.social ) 
    19·
    2 years ago

    Void is my favourite distro, although I haven’t used it for a while. Extremely fast package manager, rolling release but not bleeding edge, super simple, very fun to tinker with (more than Arch imo). I stopped using it because I wanted something more popular for easier troubleshooting. But if I ever get a secondary PC/laptop I’ll probably start using it again.

    • cerement ( cerement@slrpnk.net ) 
      10·
      2 years ago

      take a look at Alpine Linux – Alpine, Void, and Gentoo all grew out of a similar “Linux plus BSD” attitude – Alpine’s package manager is as fast or faster than Void’s – Alpine is pretty under-represented (but not absent) on the desktop side of things while being rather over-represented in the container, VM, server side of things (meaning the small community tends to be rather admin heavy)

      • ___ ( ___@l.djw.li ) English
        4·
        2 years ago

        Underrepresented at best, at worst it’s arguably too easy to forget that Alpine is more than just container images.

        Not sure how to solve that problem, it’s my go to for rolling an image but wouldn’t normally make the shortlist for standalone machines. In a prod env, that’s basically Deb, RHEL derivatives, etc. In a personal env for me, Arch derivs tend to win out on non-critical services if only because I invariably learn something useful that I wouldn’t want to learn in prod.

      • claymore ( claymore@pawb.social ) 
        3·
        2 years ago

        Oh I know about alpine, sadly it didn’t “click” the same way void did and felt more like a distro to use in embedded systems or similar space constrained situations. Gentoo on the other hand I like, but the initial setup + waiting for stuff to compile put me off of it. Maybe I’ll try it again sometime with all precompiled packages.

  • Sibbo ( Sibbo@sopuli.xyz ) 
    14·
    2 years ago

    Not niche, but surely exotic: NixOS, a distribution that is configured via a purely functional language. There is no such thing as installing or uninstalling packages, you add or remove things from your configuration and then simply apply that configuration.

    • canadaduane ( canadaduane@lemmy.ca ) English
      7·
      2 years ago

      I really wanted to like NixOS (and I do, theoretically), but I couldn’t dedicate more than 5 full days over Christmas to learn how to get to a working development system.

      • Laser ( Laser@feddit.org ) 
        4·
        2 years ago

        May I ask what the issue actually was? Was it about “working system” or about “working development system”?

        I don’t recall needing more than two days for getting a system up and running for the first time, and in fact it worked so well that I switched all my machines to it by now; granted, I have changed a lot about the configuration ever since and there seem to be a lot of paths to take in the beginning and it’s not always clear which one to take. But getting a working system, even one suited for development (personally, I’d recommend a nix development shell for that), shouldn’t really take that long.

        • canadaduane ( canadaduane@lemmy.ca ) English
          1·
          2 years ago

          Working development system. I got quite far, but after so much work, became very frustrated when a VSCode plugin wouldn’t work properly because it needed (and assumed) read/write access. I didn’t want to have to manage and think about every little plugin I experimented with at the OS level.

        • Random Dent ( CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml ) English
          1·
          2 years ago

          For me, the main blocker was just getting my head around the concept of it, as it seems like such a wild idea for a distro. I still don’t think I’m 100% there, but I have enough down now to cobble a working system together at least.

        • Random Dent ( CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml ) English
          3·
          2 years ago

          I think it could be good for something like an office, where it might be beneficial to have everyone on an identical setup that’s immutable so they can’t mess with it, and can (presumably) be duplicated by just copying a config file.

          I assume the con would be that if something breaks in an update, it probably breaks for everyone. But by the same token, the solution should fix it for everyone too.

        • Laser ( Laser@feddit.org ) 
          3·
          2 years ago

          Using it on all my machines (desktop and notebooks), can’t really complain – but then again, couldn’t really complain about Arch either

    • rescue_toaster ( rescue_toaster@lemm.ee ) 
      5·
      2 years ago

      My first linux install was crunchbang. I don’t remember why I picked it. Perhaps i liked the minimalistic look. Ended up not really liking openbox and I vaguely remember running into some problem with debian’s old packages, though I honestly can’t remember what. So I switched to ubuntu, which was great for me as a linux noob.

    • Handles ( halm@leminal.space ) English
      3·
      2 years ago

      I know this might be asking for trouble, but how does BunsenLabs compare to CB++? I know they both came out of Crunchbang but I went with BL when that died.

      These days I’m on EndeavourOS, but I still use Openbox instead of DEs and customize it to look as much like Crunchbang as possible 😄

      Edit: also, I feel naked without Conky on my desktop.

  • bsergay ( bsergay@discuss.online ) OP
    10·
    2 years ago

    May as well contribute my own 😜.

    I’m an absolute sucker for exquisitely hardened distros. Hence, distros like Qubes OS and Kicksecure have rightfully caught my interest. However, the former’s hardware requirements are too harsh on the devices I currently own. While the latter relies on backports for security updates; which I’m not a fan of. Thankfully, there is also secureblue.

    Contrary to the others, secureblue is built on top of an ‘immutable’ and/or atomic base distro; namely Fedora Atomic. By which:

    • It’s protected against certain attacks.
    • Enables it to benefit from more recent advancements and developments that benefit security without foregoing robustness.

    If security is your top priority, Qubes OS is the gold standard. However, secureblue is a decent (albeit inferior) alternative if you prefer current and/or ‘immutable’/atomic distros.