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Power-user distros

While the definition of being a power user remain debatable, Shashank Sharma thinks you’re one if you run one of these distros as your daily driver.

Shashank Sharma has tested more distributions than you’ve had microwaved TV dinners!

Most modern desktop distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Mandriva are anathema to power users. This is because these distributions aim to provide a ready-to-use environment to users without much intervention or interaction on their part. While this is certainly appreciable, especially for novice users, experienced campaigners might prefer more control over their Linux distribution.

We’ll test the distributions on all the usual criteria such as documentation, installation, bundled applications and even package management. That’s because while power users might well be able to resolve dependencies manually, it’s neither smart nor efficient to do so.

We’ll also discuss the ideal use case for these distributions and their longevity, which is reflected by the release policy, frequency of updates and stability. On top of all that, we’re looking for a distribution that gets out of your way while you fiddle and tinker with different aspects, to make it suit your purposes.

There are many titles and recognitions bestowed upon individuals for their achievements and success. We often hear about and indeed celebrate our favourite actors and sports personalities being so recognised. But there’s one title, that of being a power user, which users can bestow upon themselves after judging themselves worthy.

This is because there’s no identifiable formula to determine what constitutes a power user. Does the ability to configure any manner of hardware on your Linux distribution make you one? Maybe it’s when you can patch the kernel to be able to use the webcam on your laptop.

About the only thing that’s known for certain about power users is that they’ve been working with Linux for long enough to be intimately familiar with it. Which makes it possible for them to identify, diagnose and maybe even solve problems without much hand wringing. Couple that with familiarity with the command line, the desire and willingness to tweak the distribution to their liking and you arrive at a power user. Maybe.

While a power user is at liberty to use any distribution they like, there’s little doubt that only a power user will be able to get the most bang for the buck out of the distributions featured in this month’s Roundup.

Installation options

Sometimes installing a distro feels like running up a very steep hill.

With the exception of Debian, none of the distros feature a graphical installer. Slackware and Arch go a step further and don’t even provide a live-installable media. Slackware’s Ncurses-driven installer isn’t complicated and provides on-screen instruction, which are terse but still helpful and contain all the information you need to successfully move forward with each step. You’re asked to partition the disk before starting the installer and the distro provides the choice of fdisk and cfdisk , yet more command-line tools, to help you carve space for Slackware. Run the setup to launch the installation wizard which will run you through the different installation steps, such as selecting the target partition, package selection, etc.

Similarly, Void Linux doesn’t offer a graphical installer. It provides live-images favouring different desktop environments such as Mate, XFCE and LxQT. Like Slackware, it expects users to carve space for the distro using cfdisk . The project doesn’t support installation on a LVM scheme. Log in to the live environment with the ‘root’ username and ‘voidlinux’ as the password. Run void-installer to launch the installation process.

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