Christian Linux Users

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Devuan Daedalus 5.0 was released on August 15, 2023. It is based on Debian 12. Devuan does not use the controversial systemd. Instead the user has a choice of using SysVInit, OpenRC, or runit for the init system. I am currently using runit. runit boots up Devuan very fast. I am using the default Xfce 4.18.1 which as of September 18, 2023 is the latest version. In addition to using Xfce, the user has a choice of installing KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, MATE, or LXQt.

INSTALLER
I used the network installer, because it doesn't take much space on a flash drive. This is a Debian installer with the choice of a graphical or standard installer. I choose the standard installer as it works better with a laptop without a mouse. There is a basic installation and an advanced installation. I choose the basic installation as it is easier to use. The only bootloader available in the basic installation is grub2 which works well with a multiple boot setup and can boot into an external hard drive.

DEFAULT SOFTWARE
The default browser is Firefox-ESR. Some other browsers are available in the repository. Additional repositories can be added for those wanting to use Librewolf, Waterfox, Pale Moon, SeaMonkey, or Brave. Mousepad is included for writing text. LibreOffice is the office suite. Parole Media Player is included for playing videos. Other video players such as MPV and vlc are in the repository for those who have video or audio formats that the included players don't play. Quod Libet is the included audio player. xfce4-terminal is the included terminal. The included terminal is usual the terminal of the desktop that you installed. The included file browser is usually the standard file browser of the desktop that you installed. For Xfce it is Thunar. An email client is not included, but Thunderbird and other email clients are available in the repository. Synaptic is included which lists software packages and can be used to install software. Like other operating systems in the Debian tree, Apt can also be used to installing and updating software.

DISPLAY MANAGER
The default display manager for the Xfce edition is Slim. Slim is lightweight. The disadvantage fo Slim is that GNOME keyring will not work if Slim is set to automatically load the desktop. I use Slim to automatically load, and I am not using browsers that use GNOME keyring. Browsers that use GNOME keyring include browsers with the Blink layout engine such as Brave, and the Epiphany browser (Web). Browsers in the FIrefox family and Pale Moon do not use GNOME keyring. Other desktop environments ship with other display managers.

REVIEW
Devuan works very smoothly. It is well liked by many GNU/Linux users. It currently has the second highest rating on Distrowatch.com of distros with at least 100 votes. It is the highest rating for distros which use apt and the highest rating of point release distros. Some other distros which use different windows managers are based on Devuan.

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One install that I currently have is Slackware 15.0. Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distro. it is not as easy to setup as distros in the Debian tree. Slackware uses SysVInit and uses Lilo or Elilo as the default bootloader depending on whether the user has a MBR or EFI. Slackware has the option of using Grub2 as the bootloader. Slackware includes Firefox, SeaMonkey, Falkon, and Konqueror for browsing. The user has the choice of using KDE, Xfce, Fluxbox, Windowmaker, Blackbox, fvwm, and twm plus other desktops that a user could use from third party repositories or build from source. Any Bible software would have to be built from source.

If, the user wants to use a generic kernel, and there is a new updated kernel, the user would need to update the kernel, make an initial RAM disk, and update Lilo or Grub. I couldn't get the generic kernel working with elilo. The huge kernel does work with elilo.

Slackware 15.0 has rock solid stability. But, I prefer an operating system that takes less time to configure; such as Devuan or Ubuntu. I will review Devuan Daedalus 5.0 next

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More photos of my C4C Ubuntu 22.04 install.

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I am now using C4C Ubuntu 22.04 which is available at https://computers4christians.org/ . This distribution is based on Xubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish. The installer is the Calamares Installer. This is the installer used by Manjaro Linux and KaOS.
I struggled with this installer due to the cursor being frozen on the screen on my Lenovo Ideapad 3 laptop. I had to make a separate EFI boot partition due to the bootloader failing to install on the first EFI partition. I partitioned manually, making root, home, and swap partitions in addition to the EFI boot partition. I had to put "i8042.nopnp=1 pci=nocrs" in the kernel line of /etc/default/grub and updated Grub in order for the cursor to move.
Unlike stock Xubuntu, C4C Ubuntu has the panel at the bottom of the screen. A white on black cross icon is where the pull up menu goes up from. C4C Ubuntu has a Whisker Menu. Firefox is the web browser included with many links to Christian web sites and Ubuntu web sites. C4C Ubuntu includes LibreOffice, the GIMP, and the VLC Media Player, FileZilla, and Thunderbird. There is Christian software included including Xiphos, Wide Margin, and Bible Desktop. Some Christian games are included, and links to Christian YouTube channels. There are also audio Bible recordings and sermons available.
The gnash media player is installed on a Snap. I was also able to install Whatsie, a WhatsApp program as a Snap.
One thing that the user wants to fix is change the link of the Kent Hovind YouTube channel to another channel that Kent Hovind controls, due to the Kent Hovind Official YouTube channel being terminated due to an alleged term of service violation.
I do like that Ubuntu warns the user when there are important security updates to software via Software Updater. The Software & Updates program chooses the fastest server, it so happened to be a Canadian server for me.
Ubuntu has systemd for its init system and service supervision. Some people don't like systemd, but it does provide a faster boot than SysVinit.
This is a fine operating system for those who want Christian software and material bundled in. It would be nice if there was a Christian distribution based on Devuan GNU/Linux for those who prefer a systemd free system.

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`I installed C4C Ubuntu 22.04, a Christian version of Xubuntu on my computer. A review follows.