n00b Question

[Kilroy]

Hello, everybody,

I've only tried vsido live so far, but what I see I like. However, I also plan to use Linux productively, in my professional environment. Every RR distribution, no matter if sid or Arch (etc.) brings with it the danger that the system will be broken during an upgrade. The last time I used a Debian sid based distribution was at the time of sidux, almost 10 years ago. What are your experiences with stability? I am looking for a distribution that is lightweight and has a friendly community to contact in case of problems.

- K.

[PackRat]

VSIDO is really stable.

The main - as in recurring - issues occur when perl, python, and xorg get upgraded. They're big packages so some dependacies may lag a bit; Vastone (the developer) usually spots those upgrades early and give the forum a heads up. VSIDO has all the apt safeguards enabled, so as long as you adhere to best practices and pay attention when you upgrade it should be smooth sailing.

[VastOne]

Hello Kilroy and welcome to VSIDO..

What RatMan said..   

I would also advise you to get to know and use fsarchiver.. it is by far the easiest and most practical disaster recovery tool ever.. EVER!

I have a How To on this forum to use fsarchiver It is a life saver.. As the developer I have fallen into some of the traps PackRat indicated.. They were both Perl related and it was I who didn't trust my gut and went ahead with the update.. Anyway, fsarchiver saved my ass because I had backups made and restored the developer / build partition in seconds.. that is NOT a misprint, in seconds I was back up and running .. also, SpaceFM (the greatest file manager ever and default for VSIDO) has builtin tools to backup and restore partitions with fsarchiver.. I SWEAR BY BOTH! Nad use both every single day

Another really good practice is to do a weekly dist-upgrade, that seems to be a good rhythm of updates without massive hits on your server (a lot of updates at once IMO is not a good thing so doing it weekly keeps it balanced)

Finally, do an fsarchiver backup before any major kernel updates.. this way if the kernel might not like you video card (rare now) you have the backup to fall back on...Just as PackRat indicated I try to remain at sid levels (dist-upgrade) every day so I see what is coming and I always make sure this forum is aware of it

This is something I wrote recently for twitter friends who did not know what VSIDO or SID was... It may also add some information to your decisions

When I created VSIDO it was a combination of what I knew and wanted and what several friends recommended and well the rest is history

I had been using Debian SID for several years and could not understand why it had such a bad reputation.. There were at the time a few SID distros but most have gone by the wayside..

I also wanted a distro that gave the newest user who downloaded it no more than 2 weeks of being a dist-upgrade of packages behind.. For the most part I have done just that.. Everytime there is a kernel upgrade or every 2 weeks I rebuild, test and deploy the distro.. It has worked out quite well

The other drive behind this was the frustrating world of Stable Debian where you have to wait 2-3 years for any new packages based on their release schedules..

Over the last 6 years of VSIDO and the 3 before it as I used Debian SID I can count on one hand anything that 'broke' my system because of a package.. Two of those three were because of Perl.. Classic case of the Perl devs not letting the application package maintainers the chance to catch up...

Other than those it has been an absolute joy

Mayhap more than you were expecting, but it is the story of VSIDO

Good luck and please don't hesitate to get in touch with any of us

[Kilroy]

Sounds excellent. I think I'll give vsido a chance right on metal this weekend (as time and family permits). Another question about the community.... if I browse the forum a little you might think that vsido is worn by both of you. Or is this impression deceptive?

- K.

[PackRat]

I've used it extensively in the past, but my VSIDO drive bought the farm about 6 weeks ago. The disto itself never failed on me (although operator error has resulted in borking it once or twice).

I keep a usb with the current VSIDO as a rescue/travel distro.

[VastOne]

VSIDO is and has literally been my desktop come to life for the last 6 or 7 years

[jedi]

Aye, same here VastOne.  Since summer of 2012 I believe!  Never broken unless, like PackRat, something I've broken myself... 

[Kilroy]

I've used it extensively in the past [...]

I keep a usb with the current VSIDO as a rescue/travel distro.

Which system are you using productively now? Void? ArchLabs? I'll ask out of curiosity...

[PackRat]

Both - good guess.

Void Linux is my daily driver.
I've been helping out with the testing of ArchLabs.

I was using VSIDO as an nfs file server and one of the locations for backing up data - default install that was running just fine. Took a harddrive failure to take it down. 

[Kilroy]

Wasn't just a guess. You have posted many screenshots of Void and in your github configuration files you also have some for ArchLabs.

I'm not quite as adventurous as you are. After sidux I switched directly to Crunchbang and a world collapsed when Philip announced the end. By the way, interesting to see that almost every openbox distribution now looks like a Crunchbang clone ^^