I first got into Devuan two years ago when there was talk of non-Systemd distros in the market. Having used GNU/Linux Mint 18.3 (the last one to allow "some" sort of init choice), I kept waiting for the right moment to jump right in. I tried Devuan when ASCII was out, but I had problems with metapackages (i.e. removing SLiM affects essential system functions, such as UDisks), so I left it alone and went back to my daily driver. Come Beowulf, it FINALLY showed promise, but I still didn't quite feel right with it.

That's when I'd heard that a Devuan spin by the name of Refracta existed, so I honestly gave it a go. I was surprised how lightweight it was, and the necessary drivers were provided to me in the form of binaries (I definitely needed those for my AMD GPU). On top of that, its default sound drivers shipped with ALSA (instead of PulseAudio, which I can't quite wrap my head around for such a non-Systemd distro to use as default). Even better is that you get to create your own live installer with ease.

After spending all of yesterday tweaking my Refracta system to how I see fit, I can safely say that this will tide me by for a really long time. Surprised how stable it is, and it's superior to other non-Systemd champions Artix GNU/Linux, MX GNU/Linux,  and Void GNU/Linux.

So, to sum it up, the "point" of using Devuan is to get away from Red Hat and Poettering bollocks by ways of Systemd, PulseAudio, and other such rubbish. Canonical putting the final nail in the coffin was when they announced Snap. Well, at least GNU/Linux Mint's developers had enough common sense to reject that, but it looks like they will continue to use Systemd, even on GNU/Linux Mint Debian Edition (here's their perfect chance to join forces with Devuan and usher in the best of both worlds).