Review: siduction 2024.1.0
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
As with most long-lived Linux distributions, siduction has some great strengths and a few problems. On the positive side of things, siduction builds on the massive collection of software from Debian and offers multiple desktop environments alongside a minimal, command line edition. This gives users a great deal of flexibility and variety of software. siduction, at least during my trial, was stable and its rolling nature means it is regularly updated with the latest upstream software.
I also really like siduction's handbook as it covers a wide range of topics clearly and practically. It also helps that the handbook is available locally. We don't need to get on-line to read the handbook to get help troubleshooting network issues.
The main feature of siduction I appreciated was Btrfs snapshots being integrated into the boot menu automatically. The Snapper tool didn't work for me, but I was able to manually create snapshots before each update and then rollback to them later if need be. More distributions, especially rolling release projects, should offer similar functionality.
The default collection of software, at least on the LXQt edition, feels like a mixed experience. There are some great, mainstream applications (such as LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird). There are also some more obscure applications, some items which plain didn't work for me, and some duplication of functionality. We probably don't need multiple text editors and virtual terminals, for instance.
The main area where I ran into issues was how siduction worked with my laptop's hardware. The distribution technically worked (my wireless card was detected and audio worked), but volume controls didn't work and connecting to a wireless network was buried six steps deep. None of my issues were show-stoppers, just annoyances I had to try to work around or fix.
A minor concern was that siduction's handbook is due for an update. It looks like new material is being added, but out of date information isn't being updated or pruned. This also isn't a terrible thing, but it might confuse users who try to switch SysV init runlevels to perform upgrades when the distribution is running systemd. I also would have liked to have seen a more modern software centre included in siduction. Synaptic works and I had no problems with it, but a modern software centre could have unified Deb and Flatpak package management.
I liked siduction's performance, I liked its variety of desktop environments, and I appreciated how it implemented its rolling release. There are some rough parts, areas where it looks like the project has been stretched thin. There are a few items which could benefit from more testing or modernization. On the whole, siduction is a good rolling release project and one which showcases what the next version of Debian will include. If you like Debian, but feel it is out of date, or like rolling releases and want more stability, then siduction is a solid option.