Void Linux - A Distro You Really Should Try

Void Linux is one of my go to distros, but it's another OS that doesn't get as much love as it deserves, and I feel that many Linux users could be missing out on a great experience.
In this video I run through a basic installation using the XFCE desktop and then move on to discuss package management, with a particular focus on using the Void packages source tree.
I demonstrate a few simple examples including patching libXft for colour emojis using Void packages.
I really hope you enjoy using this distro as much as me and at least give it a spin to see for yourself why I'm so impressed.
I hope you enjoy the video :-)
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Ramble On!

[@treighpedroche1516]

"...I'm running Arch, I'm running Slackware, and I'm running Void..." Now that is an experienced hardcore Linux user I love it!

[@robertcoyle9071]

Next stop would be BLFS. But you need lots of time with building something like that.

[@brianbrenner8050]

Been using void for a year now. Bleeding edge releases, yet extremely stable and possibly the fastest package manager I’ve ever used. Also amazing documentation, plus it’s super simple and feels close to a BSD which I love. Distro hopping is over for me

[@robertcoyle9071]

You stop hopping once you start building. If you spent days building something you aren't as likely to scrub your drive and install the latest Ubuntu spin you read about in distro watch. People with ones like Arch, Alpine or Void are at the end of the road and the only place to go from there is maybe Gentoo or LFS hardened or something.

[@d1ssolv3r]

@@robertcoyle9071 I dunno, at a point it's somewhat too much, I like to have a semi configured system so I don't spend hours compiling and setting up basic things like bluetooth, even Arch is a bit of a stretch at times. Void is incredibly close to being my #1 but I've run into driver issues. I dream of a simple and stable distro with fully selectable defaults, easy source builds like xbps but great out the box support. Maybe one's out there and I haven't found it yet. Arch is the closest but Void is on the right track to be even better. Maybe I'll try it again one day

[@robertcoyle9071]

@@d1ssolv3r i only have about 10 or 12 AUR packages including the dependencies I had to build. Most of what I use arch for is in the repos. I have a 32 bit alpine in virtual and I'm tempted to put it on an older machine thats not doing anything right now.

[@arturofatturi9490]

R.I.P. OTB, many thanks for you time in this videos...

[@markusschafer2320]

Thank you for the video! I am using this distro since nearly 2 years as a daily driver on a Laptop and a Desktop PC. I am even gaming on this distro.

[@moister3727]

Really? does it have steam on it? how's the performance? I'm just too use to arch by now.

[@markusschafer2320]

@@moister3727 steam is in the nonfree-repos, it works for me. The performance is very good.

[@saltrocklamp199]

Thanks so much for this. I would love to see more content showing how you actually do stuff on Linux distros other than just installing. Actually stepping through the XBPS workflow was way more interesting than just poking around the desktop settings!

[@celestialbeing4767]

Timeshift is another package. Thank for continuing covering it.

[@peppe540]

Great intro to Void; been on my to do list for some time now. Good stuff! Thanks, Steve

[@OldTechBloke]

You’re welcome mate

[@thewalkingforest5185]

After playing around with void in a VM for last month and a half, Im hopping to it from arch

[@reptilicusrex4748]

Thanks for making this video and putting in the extra time to go beyond just making yet another "installer review". Some of the functionality which you covered in regard to xbps was very informative and helped me understand what some of the xtools-commands are actually doing. Please do not edit/eliminate your mistakes, typing or otherwise, it adds to the uniqueness of the content and helps to bring focus on what you are attempting to achieve.

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks mate

[@BWGPEI]

Greeting and Best Wishes from Ontario Canada. Another old tech guy here, and I also have several systems running Linux, including my old Lenovo T500. For our purposes, Mint Cinnamon works very well indeed, especially for someone who used Microsoft products professionally for 30 odd years. I do love Ventoy for trying new distributions, and do have a test bed AMD FX Black system to install interesting ones onto for a better test. Thanks for a very fine presentation!

[@fossrules]

Thanks for the interesting video, OTB! With regard to setting up your network when installing on a Thinkpad laptop I found a way to get your NIC working during the installation. While in the live ISO I clicked on the NM icon on the upper right in XFCE and connected to my WAP. Then the ncurses installation found the wireless network.

[@eddieoconnor4466]

And here it is I thought I was "behind the times" using my three ThinkPad T-420's to run Fedora...Linux Mint....and BunsenLabs!!?...LoL!

[@baaz5642]

I installed it after watching your video (coming from arch) and I absolutely love it

[@folksurvival]

It's a great distro.

[@baaz5642]

@@folksurvival indeed its

[@mato_s]

Enjoyed the video steve nice work!

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers

[@TheChrissutcliffe]

Great video and a good intro to Void which I have just installed on a VM. I am enjoying the distro at the moment and am considering installing it to a second SSD to try it on bare metal, I love its simplicity.

[@Tgspartnership]

thanks for the nudge in the right direction. looking forward to using void

[@StrelokRadist]

Finally back to Void. Thank you!

[@mecrumbly429___4]

I did a void minimal install with i3. It took a lot of work, but the result is definitely worth it. The subject of the install was a 2015 budget-model dell inspiron 15 (worth around $300 at the time). Boot time is literally 20 seconds.

[@le0nz]

How much was normally?

[@mecrumbly429___4]

@@le0nz 1 1/2 minutes running Mint.

[@torsten.breswald]

awesome, thx for the xbps-src stuff, i always wanted to checkout this more, couldn't really get my head wrapped arround it, just watching the whole process through helps a lot to get a glimpse i also appreciate you leaving the little mistakes in the video, it helps to figure out stuff if we run into same errors like that oh and you once wondered why you like void so much. it's because it is so clean. it very dumbly just does what you command it to do and only that. all other distros, even arch, at certain points help you or take assumptions on you, preconfigure stuff, put on themes etc... and void doesn't do that, it doesn't step out of the way, but it forces you to think about stuff, you never have the feeling there's something going on behind the scenes, if you install xfce, you get an xfce, vanilla, not more not less and although this can be an absolute hassle to new users, for someone who like to tinker arround and actually need like you said a blank canvas that is really relaxing, you always know what your system is about great video

[@OldTechBloke]

Thanks mate

[@robertcoyle9071]

Once you get past the bling phase of cubes and elaborate conky displays your questions are about package management, how much resources does it use and how stable is it. Xfce4 is my default DE on any new distro. It's what I know and it stays out of the way. I wish it had support for secondary monitors so I fire up i3 when I need that. First thing I grab is micro for text editing, terminator for terminal access and pcmanfm because you can run it as root for post install configuration. All 3 are very useful tools.

[@gilbertogarma2820]

Very good video, with details about how to do for that your really good work

[@doctorsocrates4413]

I love your videos...much appreciated and thank you.

[@Chrisg457]

It really is a great distribution. I’ve used it before in the past and it remains one of my favorites.

Along with quality, void is saving my old 32bit laptop

[@baaz5642]

Just a quick note I installed it with btrfs and it's absolutely awesome I really suggest you to try that too

[@unknowntoka]

Void is by far the best binary distribution I ever used. It is just highly stable rolling distro unlike arch linux. But arch linux has more packages available in the repos as well as aur which is the only positive going for it. If someone is comfortable with compiling certain non mainstream applications manually then void is the best binary distribution one can get.

[@DCM777.]

Arch is more stable than Void.

[@eh-lo2do]

@@DCM777. no arch is bleeding edge, void focus more on stability than being bleeding edge

[@DCM777.]

@@eh-lo2do Arch is stable. And Void uses too many workarounds to make things happen.

[@unknowntoka]

@@DCM777. what sort of work around exactly do you mean

[@unknowntoka]

@@eh-lo2do exactly

[@Norbert9696]

One of my favourite distros, thank you for continuing to cover it! Could the title be a reference to doom metal band Forming the Void?

[@OldTechBloke]

Actually no i just thought of that expression about the world without form and void 😀

[@mecrumbly429___4]

Dude, Void is a regular word in the english dictionary. Not to be rude, but some people won't take that too kindly.

[@steve1961a]

@@mecrumbly429___4 hey there will always be some people who are offended. Tbh it’s their problem

[@ThatsNotArt]

This is great. I'd also be interested in hearing your review of Kiss Linux

[@htx80nerd]

Great video, nothing wrong with long format.

[@grimfistgaming7694]

I am on Void for nearly a year now. I am running KDE on top of a base network install, it is fast, easy and reliable. In other words, it is boring, in a positive way, cause it "just works", something I never experienced on any other Linux distro before.

[@solutionroute]

Agreed. Void is terrific. Rolling but not bleeding edge. I'm running it on public mail servers (musl on x86 vms), glibc variant running glusterfs servers x86 local machines), a couple raspberry pi4s locally, and my desktop (X/dwm) and laptop (Gnome). I still get a little when the Pi4 boots in a couple seconds. runit is straightforward and quick. The docs are clear and if followed anyone will make it through with a working system; for experienced folks, they are delightfully concise. void-packages / building from source when I need to is extremely convenient. All-round it's simply a very well-thought-out distribution and set of tools. PS for VM users, Vultr has Void ISOs (glibc) available in their library; you can upload the musl version and install from there with zero issues.

[@sprinklednights]

I am probably the youngest person to be liking Void Linux, but I really dig it and find it amazing.

[@andreistan7552]

linux noob here all i have to say is ....u have a really nice voice

[@blackspetnaz2]

i miss this man

[@rocvcruz2342]

Awesome distro!! Fast, stable, systemd free and a lot of features in a list but I can't set texlive, I always get compilation errors

[@e8root]

Void from your video and articles sounds very good. Exactly my kind of Linux. Currently using Gentoo and so far it ticks all the boxes and its package manager being Python based can be easily extended if I ever need it to do something beyond what it does.

[@neotwenty-nineBzH]

I did... 😊

[@MakeLinuxSimple]

Slackware'ish - Debian'ish installer mix together, I like that.

[@johnjoyce]

I suspect a big part is the lack of systemd, use of lib musl C where possible, and IIRC they use clang/llvm to compile as much as possible (but that last one not sure)

[@mecrumbly429___4]

Let’s not forget the use of openRC and TXZ/TGZ package management

[@human__________]

if it wasn't for the issues I had trying to get Overwatch installed via Lutris I'd still be on Void. I have a fairly fast PC but while I was running Void it felt even snappier. And that was using Gnome. I'm on openSUSE right now and Zypper feels like molasses. I'll probably give it a go again in a year or so.

[@RetosSpace]

R.I.P OTB Legend!

[@Dark6997]

I actually wasn't very experienced when I found void, it had some difficulties for me but it really is my favorite. I tried another distro but went back to void in the end

[@wisecat.]

I'm using Arch-based Manjaro Linux at the moment to full satisfactory. But this is so cool and interesting that I'm really considering trying Void.

[@cadetriestocode]

Love void have it on my desktop and arch on laptop. Only downside of void I've experienced is trying to use Cuda/ nvidia for video rendering. Might move the laptop over to void soon too.

[@akonjee]

Thanks for the tutorial. How hard to install & configure bspwm or spectrwm on void linux? It would be great to have a complete tutorial video on setting up bspwm/spectrwm on void linux.

[@OldTechBloke]

Dead easy, I’ll look at putting something together

[@RHTORAS]

@@OldTechBloke this video was awesome and i would like to see more on void and there is another distro Venom Linux... i would like to show us this too... systemdfree also...

[@panjo40]

love your videos ,where did you purchase your cap with the Tux logo?

[@opopopop6286]

Luv checking out new distros, yet today I have decided to make Manjaro one of my main distros for my gaming computer, etc. Used to love Arch waaaaay over a decade ago...so I want to go with the beefiest best user rated version of such...coming from Voyager Ubuntu (#55 distrowatch) WHICH WAS CLOSE to perfect, just that that WONKY ubuntu 21.10 release fudged up it's near perfection!

[@KellyOn]

Thx for review, ii was testing for few times in past 2 years, eveolving quick, the missing of some packages keeps me on Artix also runit, Void is just more .... The most stable and quick linux system

[@jayhughes3843]

People say the same thing about antix/MX, so can you explain to a noob why Void is better than those?

[@a.s.chillum108]

@@jayhughes3843 It's rolling,has latest packages, more snapper than MX, MX needs clean reinstall after every 5 years but void is rolling...

[@falkisen1]

42:28 Cool wallpaper! Where did you find it?

[@scottr.7077]

OTB - - Thanks for the tip on Void. It was good to know that they have a 32bit version which I've installed on an old Dell pIV PC. So far the only things I found off-putting and - rather disturbing - is that Void doesn't install audio. If you go to their docs section 3.17 you'll find that it starts out with: "To setup audio on your Void Linux system you have to decide if you want to use Pulseaudio, Pipewire, or just ALSA". As this indicates Void does NOT install any audio capability because they want the user to decide? Wouldn't it be better to have the installer install one of these and if it doesn't work we can change it? The docs pages for audio are not any help, having some config code but lacking any clear installation or actual usage. One other thing is that the power setting don't work well. The PC logs out every few minutes even though the power settings are set sleep to more than 30 minutes. I have found that the Otter browser works pretty well compared to some others.

[@OldTechBloke]

I installed the 64 bit xfce version and audio seemed to work out of the box

[@pilo3323]

Been wanting to try void for a while now. But after a reboot from fresh install it will just be black screen

[@paweawrynowicz9107]

omggg i need this hat with tux. where can i get one?

[@waaaaaaah5135]

For someone who is not quite a Linux noob, but not yet a wizard, and is also willing to try setting up a minimalist distro, would you recommend Arch or Void? Both seem very interesting.

[@OldTechBloke]

I would try arch first as it’s documentation is much greater

[@waaaaaaah5135]

@@OldTechBloke Thanks for the advice :)

[@theseeker4104]

Question can you do a review of StomrFish OS's Xfce edition OTB ?

[@OldTechBloke]

Hi, Ben asked me the other day and I’ll schedule in over the next couple of weeks

[@theseeker4104]

@@OldTechBloke Alright thank you OTB I appreciate it.

[@whywhatwherein]

"Nothing to be afraid." hum... the first time I am trying to install it, and I'm already getting a most basic problem: void-installer error: failed to install grub yuck

[@patpopov]

32:45 Minus zero. 😱

[@jjondoe5509]

Support for KDE...not so good?

[@OldTechBloke]

I don’t use it so I’m afraid I don’t know

[@craigmiddlemiss6917]

so is it void or avoid linux

[@michaelwrest6145]

Void is interesting and offers many advantages. However, the void-packages system seems cumbersome and is in no way a substitute for the AUR. I suspect this will hold many users back.

[@OldTechBloke]

It does take some getting used to but it’s more flexible than the aur if you want to patch or change use flags

[@witseid]

22:16

[@robertcoyle9071]

I was under the impression the project was abandoned. I guess not. I run arch as a daily and have alpine linux as one of my VMs so I'm all about building.

[@holyhelga]

yea that is as basic xfce desktop as you can get

[@OldTechBloke]

It is but that’s really the point 😁

[@alienforce7688]

It suck less then Arch, btw i am using Void.

[@garth56]

Why would you install this over Arch..????

[@rishirajsaikia1323]

Because it has better stability than Arch Linux.

[@florianfelix8295]

You sure that London is still in Europe? ;P

[@OldTechBloke]

Still in Europe but not the EU

[@DCM777.]

@@OldTechBloke it's not.

[@AxelWerner]

Dude!!! Can't you make the screen any higher and the fonts any smaller? I still can almost read it!!!! JESUS CHRIST!!! a "high tech channel" what cannot handle the plain basics.

[@ne0ne0]

Please eat less salt.

[@user-xu9zx9fd7n]

I think not worth to use maybe if you use some device from 90's no thing that can worth to use oh yeh minimal not fork just a junk words .

[@everyhandletaken]

wot ?