TLDR: How does system administration and maintenance of Obarun differ from EndeavourOS and Artix, as an ordinary, semi-braindead user?

I'm currently on EndeavourOS for the moment, and would like to switch to a SystemD-free Arch variant running Xfce. I'm also currently testing Artix S6. I would like to know what the possible differences are in maintaining the system as a (mostly) stable desktop OS. I'm currently on a 5 years old Intel/Nvidia laptop.

My current life on SystemD-tainted EndeavourOS:
After installing via Calamares, most maintainance can be handled with the helper yay that is pre-bundled. I run only "yay" to update, "yay <name>" to download new packages, and "yay -Rs <name>" to delete unused stuff and libraries. Dependencies are all handled automatically. For work, all I require is Firefox and working webcam+mic, which goes through PulseAudio. Evince is used for PDF viewing.

Autologin is enabled on the Calamares installer to save time during boot up. Xfce's internal compositor is disabled in favour of Picom. An ICM colour profile is applied with the help of xiccd. Plank is used as a shortcuts dock. On personal internet use, I have LibreWolf, Tor Browser and Deluge. Music is played via DeadBeef, and bypasses ALSA resampling to a USB DAC. Pictures are viewed with Viewnior. Videos are consumed through a custom-configured mpv, upscaled with SSSR, and goes through PulseAudio Equalizer and PulseAudio itself. Bpytop monitors my resource usage.

Games are played through Steam, GOG installers and Lutris for those pesky Windows-only ones and handled via Optimus Manager. Voice communication is done through the Discord app on PulseAudio, but only because the browser one messes with me. Atom, iPython and JupiterLab are used for basic Python coding. Engrampa handles archives, which also include ZIP, 7z and RAR. If the worse happens, ArchWiki and most online tutorials are of use, and I can directly apply terminal commands.

My experiences so far with Artix:
On my experience with Artix so far, Xfce is installed by default via Calamares, with most above needs covered. Autologin is wonky and still being sorted out. I can install yay through pacman, then stick with yay for package management. At worse, I need to manually update S6's database with new services, remove old services, then bring current services up/down. The terminal reminds me of this whenever I install the equivalent S6 script for a package on yay. Optimus Manager can't be used as the AUR package has a SystemD service as a requirement. If stuff breaks, I can chroot. Not all of ArchWiki and the net works due to SystemD dependence, and my lack of knowledge of S6. Otherwise, everything works as normal, as it's only "moderately" avoiding SystemD.

My worries about Obarun (will split this up into separate question posts later once I get to setup Obarun):
I'm still downloading the JWM ISO for Obarun, and have been reading the Wiki. If I'm not wrong, the JWM ISO lets me install Xfce and the whole system via a terminal-based lite-GUI, right? Am I able to skip having a display manager entirely since I prefer autologin? I'm also uncertain how does Pacopts and Cower differ in syntax and operation from yay, and how system upgrades and packages are handled.
Since Obarun "strictly" avoids SystemD, I'm worried about PulseAudio, specifically its GUI mixer. PipeWire is probably out too as it depends heavily on GNOME, and I'm not sure if an ALSA-only GUI mixer like PulseAudio Mixer's exists, short of terminal-based alsamixer. Obarun uses Zsh, but is this irrelevant as I don't write Zsh (or even Bash) scripts? The Optimus Manager package from AUR might be out too as it needs a SystemD service, and I'm unable to code my own S6 script. Shame about the increased performance, but maybe Bumblebee or others still works? How does 66 simplify life compared to Artix's non-66 S6 init/service management?
welcome here, to the forum at least, and I may be a forum admin but otherwise I am not directly related or responsible for this distro. So don't take my words as official in any way, this is just a fellow user talking.

I've never seen such a well prepared and presented case of an introduction in this or any other distro forum, so you must not take choices lightly. I personally don't hate systemd, it is just software after all, but the impact of large corporation taking over everything that doesn't yet belong to them. So systemd, elogind, dbus, udev, networkmanager, pulseaudio, gnome, etc is all part of the same gangster like attempt to make linux a "commercial product", to kill it that is.

So, if the functionality of pulseaudio mixer gui is a make-or-break issue for choosing a distro, I would LIKE to think that Obarun would be the last thing on the universe to try. Well, it works on the live JWM image, so it must work on xfce, plasma, or whatever. It is the mindset I am worried about.


With all respect to artix, they do share the same exact packages of s6 with obarun, but there is nothing in artix that makes s6 better than runit. And that is a very sad insult to s6. If you can add a fighter jet turbine to a fork lift, run it at idle, and say it is working ... I would say I'd rather stick with the little propane motor I had, at least it will not burn half the warehouse down if I throttle it up! You are comparing 6years of development here based solely on s6 with a few months of someone learning to play with s6. Artix talked about s6 for 3 years then they decided to do something with it in 2020, and they made it do exactly what runit does. Probably worse, since runit is so much smaller and lighter in every respect.

Again, with all respect to artix, the approach here is different, trying to avoid all aspects of systemd, while in Artix the approach from day one was to pretend systemd is here to fool arch software to work without major reconfiguration. So artix has ended up with nearly 80% of systemd code being present, broken up in pieces, pretending to other software that systemd is present and functional.

About the only piece of Arch software I know that did work and will not in Obarun yet, is sane. Sane, for the first time, in testing, has a systemd dependency that doesn't have in the current stable version. Hopefully one of the master devs here will attack it and add it to the obarun repository to make it functional without systemd. And this is how things go. Arch decides to break software and add systemd dependency, someone here patches it and makes it work without. So the obarun repository is growing and the arch repositories become more and more obsolete as the disease progresses.

66 is made so the user/admin doesn't have to deal with the ultra-complexities of s6 that only a handful of CS professors can digest. Just because I learn how to fix steam and water plumbing doesn't mean I know how the nuclear reactor works. And a nuclear reactor may be much simpler than s6.
the JWM ISO lets me install Xfce and the whole system via a terminal-based lite-GUI, right?
correct
Am I able to skip having a display manager entirely since I prefer autologin?
correct but the XFCE template will install a DM by default. As being said, it's easy to remove it when the system is fully installed.
I'm also uncertain how does Pacopts and Cower differ in syntax and operation from yay, and how system upgrades and packages are handled.
if you're accustomed to use yay continue to use it. Pacopts is not suitable to yay(or yaourt or whatever the AUR helper). It's a very small program and it will not grow to provide functionalities as yay.
PipeWire is probably out too as it depends heavily on GNOME, and I'm not sure if an ALSA-only GUI mixer like PulseAudio Mixer's exists, short of terminal-based alsamixer.
Pipewire, pulseaudio, pavucontrol,... is provided and work well. They are built without the support of systemd or libsystemd
Obarun uses Zsh, but is this irrelevant as I don't write Zsh (or even Bash) scripts?
zsh is the shell by default, but bash is provided too and a lot of script running under obarun are made in Bash. Also, you can switch your shell to bash if you prefer. What you can do on Arch, you can do here, except the systemd part.
The Optimus Manager package from AUR might be out too as it needs a SystemD service
a lot of package on Arch provide the systemd service but this doesn't mean that the daemon itself need systemd to run properly. As far as the daemon is build without the support of systemd you can "translate" the systemd service to a 66 frontend file.
but maybe Bumblebee or others still works
to be honest, never used, but i know user having nvidia card and running obarun without specific issue. To be sure you need to test obarun with your hardware.
How does 66 simplify life compared to Artix's non-66 S6 init/service management?
The answer risk to be long :). The short answer is:
- One file to handle all type of s6/s6-rc service.
- Friendly API command to handle service (66-{enable,disable}, 66-{start,stop})
- Friendly API command to see status of a service (and fully detailed) (66-inservice).
- User service management
- Instantiated service
- Configuration file service management and API to change it easily(66-env)
- ...
To name a few without talking about the technical view....

The vast majority of Artix user are not aware about this: https://gitea.artixlinux.org/artix/s6-scripts/src/branch/master/README.md

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