Review: Void 20221001
The Void project produces an unusual Linux distribution with a number of special characteristics. The project is described on its website as follows:
Void is a general purpose operating system, based on the monolithic Linux kernel. Its package system allows you to quickly install, update and remove software; software is provided in binary packages or can be built directly from sources with the help of the XBPS source packages collection.
Void is a rolling release distribution which features the fast XBPS package manager which can work with both binary and source-based software. The distribution uses the super lightweight runit init software for booting the system and managing services. Void is also unusual in that it provides multiple builds, based on different C libraries. A C library is a core component of the operating system. While most Linux distributions use the glibc library, Void offers both glibc and musl libc varieties for most supported architectures. Speaking of CPU architectures, Void provides 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x86_64), and ARM builds of its distribution. Most of these builds are available in both muslc and glibc variants. I decided to focus on the x86_64 editions and selected glibc as I figured it would be more likely to work with a wide variety of software.
At this point I could also choose whether to take a minimal Base edition or an edition with the Xfce desktop. I decided to take the desktop edition. The Base edition is 650MB in size while the Xfce edition is still relatively small by modern standards, weighing in at 983MB.
Booting from the live media brings up a menu offering to run the distribution from the media or to load Void entirely into RAM to run from memory. The distribution boots unusually quickly, even from the live media, and presents us with the Xfce desktop in under five seconds.