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Topic: A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux (Read 1294 times) previous topic - next topic
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A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux

https://chimera-linux.org

They have some crazy machination of squishing together linux and bsd into some wacky system that is really interesting to ponder and to try out.  They have a live hybrid iso of gnome desktop that can be installed (for experienced users) or just tested as is.

Their claim to fame from their homepage is:

"A Linux distribution based on FreeBSD userland and LLVM

A major goal of the system is to break free from the common conventions of most Linux distributions and do its own thing. To achieve that, it seeks alternative solutions to various aspects of the stack.

In addition to new ways of doing things in the system itself, this should result in increased diversity of software choices in the ecosystem and indirectly benefit other projects as well."

Anyone remember PC-BSD?  yah, yah?  This ain't that but it could be a whole bunch better i'm thinking.  If PC-BSD were still around i'd likely still be using that for a desktop honestly.  This Chimera Linux is quite stable but appears to be nearly so.  I need some hardrive space to test this out on.  I put it up on the live usb and was quickly reminded why i hate any version of gnome beyond 2.  That said i would gladly install gnome desktop of Chimera and install Mate (gnome 2) and have my way with their distro!

Please have a gander and see what these folks are up to...

Cat Herders of Linux

Re: A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux

Reply #1 –
>>To achieve that, it seeks alternative solutions to various aspects of the stack.

Do those alternative solutions actually have any benefit or are just for the sake of "I'm different" ?

Re: A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux

Reply #2 –
Give them a test drive and tell us what you think?
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux

Reply #3 –
Quote from: cat herders of linux – on
Give them a test drive and tell us what you think?
Why should I? From the prespective of a normal user, it's just your standard UNIX utilities but they're from FreeBSD instead of GNU, and clang instead of gcc.

I didn't ask for "how it feels like", I want to know if they're talk about "alternative solutions" has any actual benefits.

Re: A very interesting idea for a linux distro Chimera Linux

Reply #4 –
Not the first, Hyperbola & Parabola went from Arch- elite (opensource pkgs only) to BSD, but they didn't fully commit so you got a BSD that looks and behaves just like Arch, down to Pacman and everything, it's kinda a trip honestly. Problem is Arch & Artix are firmly gnu/Linux, BSDs on the other hand, are remnants of Unix, so there's a lot of incompatibly when you play mix-&-match. But Chimera in addition to being one of my favorite metal bands (lol), is cool, definitely unique, but to me at least, it seems like the same category as Dragur OS, Golden Drake Linux (GDL), Blackarch, etc. It's fun to throw in virt box, but not really an everyday driver for me, there's no meat so to speak, namely due to the small team having to convert Linux to BSD packages, which is no easy feat imo, and they even say they aren't Linux in their about section,

"The musl project serves as the C library, as it’s standards-compliant and widely compatible. Chimera does not currently ship GCC in any part of its package collection.This means Chimera is not a GNU/Linux system. While this is debatable for certain other distributions as well (e.g. Alpine), they typically still tend to use the GNU compiler and other things"