I use Debian flavors for my daily drivers. I have no complaints, no real desire to switch it up on that front.
However, I am starting to get into self-hosting and homelab projects. I’d like to start test driving some light-weight distros of a different flavor.
I’d prefer a GUI be available, but the environment and WM is pretty inconsequential-- except it shouldn’t be bloated. I’ll install any additional apps I want, I don’t need a curated mid-to-heavy-weight distro.
The plan is to make heavy use of Docker images, to try to maintain a clean and modular setup of services. If that makes any difference.
Suggestions? Any slim distros you’re just gaga for?
Alpine Linux is often recommended in similar circumstances. I’ve never tried it so can’t say how it is. Of course you could use Debian with a light WM.
I have some experience with Alpine, usually in the form of images for CI pipelines and other remote usecases. It never occurred to me to check it out as a locally installed option.
I don’t see the point of it as a locally installed option. Why save disk space?