I use Debian flavors for my daily drivers. I have no complaints, no real desire to switch it up on that front.

However, I am starting to get into self-hosting and homelab projects. I’d like to start test driving some light-weight distros of a different flavor.

I’d prefer a GUI be available, but the environment and WM is pretty inconsequential-- except it shouldn’t be bloated. I’ll install any additional apps I want, I don’t need a curated mid-to-heavy-weight distro.

The plan is to make heavy use of Docker images, to try to maintain a clean and modular setup of services. If that makes any difference.

Suggestions? Any slim distros you’re just gaga for?

  • Kualk@lemm.ee
    0·
    7 months ago

    Arch is the best Debian alternative out there. They have archinstall now. It will speed up installation and will allow use of encrypted drive.

    Since you want Docker, it works better on btrfs. Arch can do that on encrypted drive.

    It is lightweight as far as you want to take it.

    NixOS is a great light alternative, but i gave ip on it twice.

    Manjaro if arch is too intimidating.