Devuan GNU+Linux

Reader supplied reviews for Devuan GNU+Linux Average rating 9.0 from 182 review(s) What are your thoughts on Devuan GNU+Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- unstabletesting6.1.15.0.14.0.03.1.02.11.0.0 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 6.1.1 Rating: 7 Date: 2026-09-02 Country: United States Votes: 0 It's Debian (with its own stable, testing, or unstable variants), minus systemd or packages with "hard" dependencies (a subjective term) on it. Debian technically supports init systems other than systemd; Devuan theoretically makes it easier to do this. You choose the init system that replaces systemd at install. You should probably just go with the default SysVinit (what Debian used before Devuan was created, in response to systemd being adopted), but other options include runit and OpenRC (partial). I go with runit because I also use Void. Speaking of install, use the netinstall ISO; it automates disk setup (including encryption) and lets you choose a desktop environment, just like Debian does. Also just like Debian, the included environments come with a fair amount of "bloat," which you will need to manually uninstall. Installing a base system with a minimal DE or window manager is also an option. I just go with KDE Plasma/X11 these days. Plasma definitely won't support X11 come version 6.8 (scheduled for 2027), but Devuan's stable branch uses 6.3 and will be supported for years; hopefully by then there will be a better solution, but don't expect it to come from Devuan directly. You'll probably have to install a fork like SonicDE, which currently requires that you add third-party repos and run testing or unstable. Plasma already has some issues running without systemd (like the activity monitor not working), and this is likely to increase in the future. For me, the pros of having a modern desktop environment with the functionality I need out of the box outweigh the cons of any potential future issues between Plasma and Devuan. The key thing to keep in mind is that Devuan literally mirrors Debian's repos (minus systemd and "hard" dependencies), and Debian is a systemd distro. Expect some packages to not work, even if you can install them. I wanted to see if I could get my 2-in-1 laptop to automatically switch monitor layouts when in tablet mode; so I switched to Plasma Wayland and installed iio-sensor-proxy, only to find out that it requires systemd. I also wasn't able to use AppImageLauncher. These are both minor inconveniences, but it should be clear by now: there is a (small) price to pay for choosing a distro that excludes systemd. Ultimately, Debian is a "reactive" distro that serves its purpose: install it if you want the Debian experience without systemd and aren't afraid to look for workarounds when things don't work as they would on Debian (rare, but it does happen). Why shouldn't you use systemd? You probably already have one or more reasons in mind. Why should you run Devuan as opposed to other systemd-free distros? The same reasons why you would have run Debian: stability, compatibility, and modularity. The system is what you make of it, and for me, being systemd-free only makes Devuan more like Debian than even Debian. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 6.1.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2026-08-23 Country: Israel Votes: 0 As a long time user of Debian based distributions, the compatibility with Debian was important to me. Thus far I couldn't tell the difference between Devuan and Debian. Two points in the rating are deducted: I was under the impression I will get the opportunity to select init system during installation. But there was no prompt for that. An operating system aiming for the desktop user should not be so plain looking. The default look after installation deserves some effort in the welcome screen, theme and icons. I expected some glitches but am pleasantly surprised from the smooth experience of Devuan Excalibur. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 6.1.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2026-08-20 Country: New Zealand Votes: 14 Installed LXDE on a 14 year old Netbook with 2GB of ram. Initial install is unsurprisingly very similar to Debian minus systemd. I did have exactly the same problem I had with core Debian getting flat packs to work but after that it was plain sailing. Does the absence of systemd result in a faster system? Maybe? I'm not really too hung up on the whole thing, I know some people are bothered by it. What I can say is Devuan is stable, snappy and generally very fast on older gear, provided you choose a sensible window manager, of course. You might want to consider installing lightdm-settings so you can change out the rather bland login screen (yeah I know perhaps a little petty but I like my eye candy). sudo apt install lightdm-settings and then login from the menu. Just remember to follow the path in login to drop in some nice wallpaper. Setting up UFW went well from the command line as did installing other essentials such office software (I use WPS), utilities/tools and so on. Oh and if you dont want Libreoffice run sudo apt purge libreoffice* and sudo apt autoremove thereafter. Gone! In summary I like Devuan. Its easy to use, pretty stable and it works on older gear which is really good. I hate e-waste and think working tech deserves a second chance. Was this review helpful? 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