Aggregate of Various Lightweight Alternatives to Common Software

Adhil · 2017-10-24 18:16:06

I'm creating this thread to discuss the viability of alternatives to certain ambitious (i.e., bloated) software projects with broad, encroaching feature creep. This is above and beyond the obvious example which brought most of us here (i.e., systemd). I've been hunting for various replacements to inefficient, unresponsive, and vulnerable software. I will attempt to explain rationale for each as I write this list. Anyone who has similar goals can feel free to post their additions for the mutual benefit of the open source community. I will try to continually improve the collection here.

1) [COMPLETED ALREADY] Replacing udev with eudev: https://github.com/gentoo/eudev

*SELF CENSORSHIP EDIT*
Kudos to fsmithred for his intructions for eudev installation here: https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?id=1543

2) Replacing gksu/gksudo with gtksu: https://github.com/KeithDHedger/GtkSu

gksu had a hard dependency on gnome-keyring which I despise. I don't enjoy the prospect of storing my passwords, albeit encrypted, anywhere other than my head. The only exception is when absolutely necessary (i.e., when creating accounts for websites, passwords must be on their servers for your account; etc.) I am a firm believer that the more areas you store passwords, the greater the potential for vulnerabilities to manifest. No man can predict every facet of their softwares' behaviors; nothing in life is perfect. Trust nothing. Minimize potential for exploitation. Don't be caught with your pants down.

3) Replacing Wicd & NetworkManager with dhcpd-ui (i.e., gtk/qt), connman, wpa_gui (qt5), or ceni: https://roy.marples.name/projects/dhcpcd-ui

This is a matter of both preference and functionality , but in my experience, I've found Wicd slow to connect, unresponsive, and reminiscent of synaptic's behavior (i.e., onerous hostage negotiations when loading a textual list of packages). Network Manager ships with features I'll never desire in addition to being the most unreliable network manager I've had the displeasure of using. Suspend oft leaves Network Manager scrambling to reconnect in a endless cycle of perpetuity especially on newer kernels for my Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300.

4) Replace ntp reference implementation with Openntpd: https://github.com/openntpd-portable/openntpd-portable

Insecure, unaudited, and probably unauditable; ntp is ancient, bloated, and never meant for user systems. It was designed for developers to study and implement. Now there are several choices for an NTP daemon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntpd#Implementations If connman is decided upon above, it has an ntp daemon built in ergo making this unnecessary. I like options though.

I've been busy practicing compilations on Salix 14.2, antiX, and Fatdog64. I've tried my hand at compiling a few of these on antiX 17, but I haven't delved into testing each or packaging into .deb or .t?z. Right now, I am working towards better compilation practices and experience in packaging software from the source. Eventually, I may find the time to compile and configure more software and share it.
P.S. Find the closest black hole and cast Pulseaudio into the abyss.

Last edited by Adhil (2017-10-25 02:47:27)

greenjeans · 2017-10-24 20:58:09

https://alternativeto.net/

Gtksu looks interesting, is there a .deb package anywhere?

Last edited by greenjeans (2017-10-24 21:04:46)

golinux · 2017-10-24 21:43:21

Adhil wrote:

1) Replacing udev with eudev: https://github.com/gentoo/eudev https://gitlab.com/trios-linux
Eudev will help to distance Devuan further from udev and thus systemd. It is stable, actively developed, and accommodating. Barry K. of Puppy Linux has received help firsthand from presumably their lead developer, blueness (i.e., https://github.com/gentoo/eudev/issues/60)
I've used TRIOS Linux and it was one of the best out of the box experience for my Dell Latitude D630 hardware. They're software has stagnated for about a couple years, yet they're still active on the Serbian forums. They were recently removed from the Without-Systemd wiki due to inactivity. The reason I bring this up is because they compiled and configured eudev for the Debian system which I failed to do after an attempt on AntiX yesterday. I'm unsure whether this already compiled eudev can be employed in Devuan's future or not. The main difference is TRIOS uses openRC whereas Devuan uses SysVinit. Perhaps eudev will be adopted simultaneously with openRC.

eudev is already available for testing on ascii and will likely be included in the ascii stable release. There is plenty of discussion about this on the ML, irc and forum.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2017-10-24 18:16:06

Aggregate of Various Lightweight Alternatives to Common Software

#2 2017-10-24 20:58:09

Re: Aggregate of Various Lightweight Alternatives to Common Software

#3 2017-10-24 21:43:21

Re: Aggregate of Various Lightweight Alternatives to Common Software

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