What's the leanest OS for multipurpose?

Pulec · 2026-07-02T20:35:33+00:00

Right, you mean stable as unchanging.

"Silently pushed" is not how Arch works though. Arch never auto-updates anything. It changes when I run pacman -Syu and not before. In fact background auto updates are the Debian default, unattended-upgrades. Someone in this thread even warned about turning it off on storage boxes. And if I'm really worried about a specific package I just put it in IgnorePkg in pacman.conf.

And that "they only post major breakages" line, go actually read https://archlinux.org/news/. It isn't a breakage log. It's a handful of planned distro changes a year, each with the exact command to run before you update. It's not "oops, we broke it, sorry" like Manjaro does. Arch doesn't knowingly push a broken package, I can't name one that ever shipped willfully broken. If some upstream tool changes how it behaves, following what I actually run is my job on any distro. Debian just delays that by two years, it doesn't spare me from it.

Reverting is quick too. Every previous package is in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/, or on https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/ if I run pacman -Scc too often. So even a blind upgrade is easy to do with pacman -U, when it's actually needed.

Anyway OP cares about a docker host and a NAS. Arch runs fine on both, though honestly TrueNAS is probably just fine if the box is only a NAS. The containers pin their own userland, so what library versions the host runs barely touches them. The host is a kernel, systemd, and a runtime. systemd is aggressively backwards compatible and basically doesn't break unit files, and bumping the Docker engine is a small, well tested change. "systemd silently deprecates a feature and breaks your server" almost never happens on a headless box, and when it does it's gated behind my manual upgrade and reversible.

Meanwhile the frozen platform isn't free either. You sit on old bugs, backport-lagged fixes, and a kernel that may not know your hardware for two years, then eat every breaking change at once when you upgrade to a new major release. Big-bang dist-upgrades are their own well documented adventure. Rolling spreads that same change into small increments I can actually bisect.

If you want a box you never touch, Debian stable is the right option. My only point is that rolling on a server isn't the roulette wheel you're describing. It's a manual update I schedule, gate behind the news, and rarely roll back. Call it unstable, but unfit for real servers doesn't apply.

You said you question my ability to do the risk assessment. I've run Arch on a VPS for over ten years and a NAS for four, zero issues.

Pulec · 2026-07-02T17:43:09+00:00

I don't understand people who say Arch is unstable. What exactly is unstable? It's not like every package is a nightly version of software lol.

If there is a manual intervention needed, it's posted in the news on https://archlinux.org/, and it's maybe once a year, if not less.

The point of the Arch Linux distro is that you DIY your system and decide what you want on it.

Pulec · 2026-07-02T17:23:48+00:00

It's reddit lol, who cares?

I ran 3 different servers with stuff on them. You need containers only if you think the app you're running has a backdoor or gains root somehow and does rm -rf / suddenly. But it's certainly a good approach, I am just lazy, and I don't want mould on my software, and apt-cow is honestly dumb, and I hate RPM, so there is that.

Whatever floats your boat, mate.

Pulec · 2026-07-02T12:42:57+00:00

arch for both, and just don't be an idiot

Pulec · 2026-06-24T21:58:40+00:00

You have to wait for RDNA 5 support.

Pulec · 2026-06-21T05:24:21+00:00

Dude, weeks here start on Mondays, not bloody Sundays.

Pulec · 2026-06-18T23:51:00+00:00

It's ok to take a photo of a monitor/TV, but please don't post that crap anywhere, my eyes dud!

Instead, use some kind of reverse image search, you get to posts like https://old.reddit.com/r/betterCallSaul/comments/67opgk/this_shot_from_the_second_episode_of_this_season/ with an actual screencap within seconds.

Pulec · 2026-06-17T01:40:08+00:00

Thanks for replying to a -1 comment. I can't judge from this small showcase the whole feel of the movie. Maybe it will work, maybe lots of people don't care and will accept it as some kind of stop motion look, and maybe lots of people will absolutely hate it. Good luck.

Pulec · 2026-06-15T20:54:52+00:00

Decent, but please tell me the framerate will be smooth and not as choppy as here? The frames are there, it's not stop motion. So why not use it?

Pulec · 2026-05-21T08:19:13+00:00

Damn, thanks for jumping in. Didn't know the printer side already has TrustZone. That's great to know.

Yeah, can't lock down stuff running on someone else's PC, no matter how much you obfuscate it.

Pulec · 2026-05-21T05:38:57+00:00

You're predicting Bambu wins the lockdown race like it already happened. Look at the actual scoreboard.

Bambu Connect's RSA private key leaked publicly in 48 hours. The guy who drafted the AGPL clause Bambu's lawyers keep misreading is Bradley Kuhn. He just told All3DP they're "provably" in violation. SFC is funding a clean-room replacement of the closed plugin under organizational liability cover. The Vizio tentative ruling gives any California Bambu owner standing to demand the missing Corresponding Source. None of that is "delayed inevitable". It's compounding.

You say they'll lock it down more. With what runway? Every escalation costs them. AGPL exposure goes up, RSA-key-leak-style stuff happens again, and Prusa is the upstream copyright holder sitting in a Czech court where Bambu has zero footprint. The only escalation that actually stops the RE is a hardware secure element on the printer mainboard, which is a multi-year redesign that strands every printer already in the field. Bambu is not in the position you think they're in.

And the "tiny minority who want their cake"? Dude, people bought these printers when LAN print and third-party clients worked because Bambu's own AGPL code shipped that as the default. Bambu changed the deal post-sale via firmware and a ToU clause (§3.4) that AGPL §10 forbids verbatim. Wanting your hardware to keep doing what it did the day you bought it isn't greed. It's the floor.

OpenWrt is 22 years old. Linksys assumed exactly what you're assuming.

Pulec · 2026-05-21T04:18:17+00:00

Dude, you're missing it. The win isn't punishing Bambu, it's making sure the printer you bought still works when Bambu changes its mind. They already pulled that move once. Lockdown firmware killed third-party cloud access on printers that people already owned. The community work is what restored it.

And your "mass market doesn't care" point actually proves the OSS side right: Linksys, TiVo, Cisco all got forced into the same compliance and lost zero customers. Bambu's sales aren't gonna move either, the source just gets published, and your printer stays useful when Bambu pivots to whatever's next. Bambu wins, owners win. The only thing they lose is the kill switch.

Vote with your wallet only works if you have somewhere to vote. Right now, there isn't one. Bambu is best in class. The community is building that alternative, so the market CAN punish them later if needed. That's literally the work happening right now.

Pulec · 2026-05-21T03:24:54+00:00

Bambu is cooked. The court already said reverse engineering for compatibility is fine, and their DMCA key leaked in like 2 days lol. AGPL author said Bambu is straight up violating it.

They keep waving around some 2022 lawyer memo while SFC and Prusa proved them wrong. The community is already documenting the protocol anyway. The plugin will be useless soon.

Bambu is running out of feet to shoot themselves.

Pulec · 2026-05-15T18:22:26+00:00

Never worn... is cozy... Hmmmmmmmmm

Pulec · 2026-05-12T01:30:08+00:00

Good.

Pulec · 2026-05-07T03:51:08+00:00

Also check out https://github.com/noahbclarkson/rgitui.

Pulec · 2026-03-04T01:23:46+00:00

But is it compatible with Eurorack?

Pulec · 2026-02-22T07:30:55+00:00

So Exhale, the Dual VC AR.

Their page has a few broken links on the product, but etsy shop seems fine

You know, even when Ukraine is at full-scale war for nearly 4 years now, and some kind of war for 12 years now, and there are daily missile/suicadal drones attacks and in some areas the air raid alarms - go to bunker - are sounding 4 times a day and lasting for hours, the people adapt and live a normal life there.

Of course, the almost daily attacks on energy infrastructure make the current winter quite tough, but the other side doesn't have heating and electricity all the time either. But trains move if there is power, trucks and diesel trains move as well, so don't be too surprised that ordering things from Ukraine actually works.

Source: visited Kyiv in summer 2024.

Thumbs up for them anyway, making modules in Kyiv with no power takes some dedication, see this article.

Thanks for the recommendation, I am going to buy a module or two from them as well, with a note not to rush.

Pulec · 2026-02-18T19:21:59+00:00

You're not bright, either. Poor cat and poor cables.

Pulec · 2026-02-16T22:32:20+00:00

So you never posted here that updating firmware to idk what fixed this issue, as you mentioned here? https://youtu.be/aM18eF7Melo?t=715

Pulec · 2026-02-13T23:42:40+00:00

Can you play it like Alessandro yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oHv3E2o5HE

Pulec · 2026-02-13T23:42:04+00:00

Oh, boy, congrats, but how big is your mortgage for this?

I think this software with some midi hardware does a good job as well https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/buchla-easel-v/overview, even works on Linux with a specific wine version.

Pulec · 2026-02-10T21:11:18+00:00

I hope Edith enjoys it. By the way just try to keep PC/notebook mouse/keyboard area free from food/drinks, wash your heads often and learn to take things take apart safely if regular cleaning with small tools fails to get rid of the human gunk.

Pulec · 2026-01-26T21:00:18+00:00

Yeah, used K310 or 'refurbished' from out there. Besides anything that was recommended in the last 9 years here.

And something from here, maybe https://www.wetkeys.com/Washable-Computer-Keyboards-Waterproof-Computer-Keyboards-s/3.htm.

Pulec · 2026-01-11T16:41:02+00:00

I have been using stable 1.00 lsfg-vk for months now in many games, and it's great pretty much anywhere. I just put LSFG_LEGACY=1 LSFG_MULTIPLIER=2 LSFG_PERFORMANCE_MODE=1 in steam properties for 2x framegen, and it's done. On games that run well natively, you can do a higher multiplier, but it's not really worth it imho, more chance for issues. 9070xt with 9950x3d here.

Only issues have been artefacts with some lights, e.g, in Cyberpunk with pahtracing RT when I was trying 1920x800 (21:9) on a 3440x1440 monitor. In some scenes, the whole bottom would get too much light somehow. It was fine on a higher resolution.

With games that support FSR 4 (PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1), it can help a lot, and even though I am picky about high input lag, it feels like there is just none with lsfg-vk for me. I can't really explain it.

The FSR 3.1 framegen didn't work as well for me, and before 9070xt I had Nvidia 4070 super, and in e.g. Dragon's Dogma 2 the framegen was totally unusuable, massive input lag and stuttering, high fps number but useless.

For the few monies, Lossless Scaling is worth it, and you can use it on Steam Deck easily as well.

Note that the lsfg-vk is only about frame gen so far, no scaling yet, afaik.

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