Helloo, firstly this might be long post about people talking void linux hasnt much packages in opposite of arch which has aur, so i will try conveince some people to void linux and will tell also something about package managers.
Package manager is a thing that keeps organized all programs on your pc, normally u would have to go to site, download .deb or .tar.xz and etc. package manager takes cares of doing that and manager also integrates this package with system, so when theres update and something is added or deleted, package manager will take care of all.
Okay, so if its only downloading then why AUR has 97587 packages, and XBPS-SRC (void linux - aur alternative kinda) has much less? It's because AUR is community, anyone can maintain some package, XBPS-SRC also has community but by pulling requests to merge TEMPLATES, but that doesn't mean u can't add your own TEMPLATES.
Wait, wait, wait, what are TEMPLATES?
Its kind of script which makes Package manager do its thing. Templates in XBPS-src and "PKGBUILD?" in AUR are similar.
We have to tell in this script: what package, what version, give link to download and etc.
Example of TEMPLATE in XBPS-SRC for DISCORD:
# Template file for 'discord'
pkgname=discord
version=0.0.96
revision=1
archs="x86_64"
depends="alsa-lib dbus-glib gtk+3 libnotify nss libXtst libcxx libatomic
xdg-utils webrtc-audio-processing libXScrnSaver"
short_desc="Chat and VOIP application"
maintainer="Ryan Conwell <ryanconwell@protonmail.com>"
license="custom:Proprietary"
homepage="https://discord.com/"
distfiles="https://dl.discordapp.net/apps/linux/$%7Bversion%7D/discord-$%7Bversion%7D.tar.gz"
checksum=2b885df8aa69310726f46149e39c42d48eda8f14b53aae605b5d7fa6410c4c0c
repository=nonfree
restricted=yes
nopie=yes
nostrip=yes
do_install() {
local package_location="usr/lib/$pkgname" item
vmkdir usr/share/pixmaps
vcopy discord.png /usr/share/pixmaps/
vmkdir usr/share/applications
vcopy discord.desktop /usr/share/applications/
vmkdir ${package_location}
chmod +x Discord
for item in \
locales \
resources \
Discord \
libffmpeg.so \
snapshot_blob.bin \
discord.png \
icudtl.dat \
libEGL.so \
libGLESv2.so \
chrome_100_percent.pak \
chrome_200_percent.pak \
chrome-sandbox \
chrome_crashpad_handler \
resources.pak \
libvulkan.so.1 \
v8_context_snapshot.bin \
postinst.sh \
libvk_swiftshader.so \
vk_swiftshader_icd.json
do
vcopy "${item}" "${package_location}"
done
vmkdir usr/bin
ln -sfr $DESTDIR/${package_location}/Discord $DESTDIR/usr/bin/Discord
}
post_install() {
vlicense $FILESDIR/LICENSE
}
Okay, but still AUR has much much more packages than xbps-src, why should i use it then? Why should i learn how to make templates?
I hope u don't use AUR blindly and just do yay -S something without looking what pkgbuild is doing, it might be dangerous not knowing what program can do and what script that is downloading it too right? XBPS-SRC learns you how to maintain packages.
Also theres way to share Templates with other by importing REPO of some templates, like librewolf-void repo and etc. So there's way to share packages.
So this is my way to conveince you to use void linux :). IN MY OPINION, void is what people think arch is. A diy distro with learning curve to understand how OS works. ARCH is great!, but void gives you more knowledge of what things systemd takes care.
To make thing little bit funnier theres easy and really nice (experimental and not official) script of installing void :
https://github.com/kkrruumm/void-install-script
THANK YOU FOR READING! I might not be clear or right in some things so tell me about that in comment, i will read everything.
SOURCES:
https://xbps-src-tutorials.github.io/packaging/j4-dmenu-desktop.html
https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages
Thank you for your comment, maybe people wont read 1:1 code, atleast they will learn how this kinda works, because now they just install things, but looking at templates they can actually understand its kinda simple script and get the idea of how it works. Also i wasn't comparing exactly xbps main void repos to AUR but overall xbps-src to aur, which can be similar because people can share templates, anyway we should still understand what package manager does and what download scripts are doing. Also void has runit so this mean u have to get more simple programs to run system like seatd dbus and etc. So overall i 2 arguments of void being better in understand of OS is actually knowing how to maintain packages and how system works from boot. Anyway i understand it is your opinion, all i can is tell u my opinion.
Edit: when i used systemd my system booted in 13sec, now on runit its 8sec, not really important thing but still
From what I can tell xbps-src are just the source packages to the main repos in Void. That is not what AUR is. We have access to the main repo sources in Arch just like Void. The main thing about AUR is anyone can contribute without any gated approvals. That is the big difference between the main source repos of either distro and AUR. Unless I have misunderstood what xbps is.
Same exact idea with PKGBUILDs. No benefit to Void here. The way Void does things will not change people looking at or understanding the packages they install. You have the same optitunities on both systems for looking at the source of packages. So that argument for Void is void :)
Not really a good argument either. Systemd and runit are different but that doesn't make runit better in terms of learning anything. If you want to learn how most Linux systems boot and operate you need to learn systemd as that is what the vast majority of distros use. Learning runit instead only means you are learning a niche way of booting a tiny fraction of systems.
Neither of these arguments are a very strong case for Void over arch.