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Recommendation for systemd free security focused distro (programming.dev)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by calcoline582@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.world
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Hello, I am looking for a well-supported Linux / BSD distribution with focus on following features (in no particular order) -

  • Systemd free (found some here)
  • Security focused (meaning hardened, not security tools)
  • Wayland (preferably without anything X11)
  • Lightweight (as much as possible)
  • Supports flatpak, containers and VMs (preferably libvirt)
  • Atomic (more optional then other requirements)

This is expected to be run on real hardware on desktop (so alpine will not work).

Along with that, what are some good lightweight (but well-known / actively maintained) desktop environments for Wayland?

  • I see some here but am looking for opinions or if some are missing.
  • Especially ones that support stacking.

The most interesting ones I could find -

  • Void Linux (has some X11 stuff, not security focused, will try installing Wayland)
  • Kicksecure, OpenBSD, HardenedBSD (yet to explore more for these)
  • MXLinux and Artix (seem very niche)?

I am looking for more recommendations/opinions for similar requirements, especially if there are better known ones.

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[-] throwaway403@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

hardened

This is an important keyword but perhaps not sufficiently discussed. I'd reckon focusing on it will be pretty helpful.

So..., what is it you want? Is it

  • A. Make a fortress out of a very decent starting point? To daily drive it afterwards*.
  • Or B. Daily drive a fortress built by someone else?
  • Or perhaps even C. Something else entirely?

By the rest of your post, I'd bet on B. Which, puts us into an interesting situation...

systemd free

Assuming^[To be honest, I don't see any reason to not grant them the benefit of doubt. As far as I can tell, their lists look complete.] DistroWatch does a decent job at tagging/categorizing, there are only a handful of distros that are both systemd-free and tagged with "security". Note that half of these don't survive it upon closer inspection, which leaves us with Alpine, HardenedBSD and OpenBSD.

If you're well-versed into hardened distros, you'll note the absence of Linux' finest in this category; namely Kicksecure and secureblue. Their absence is due to their (heavy) reliance on systemd for additional hardening.

Furthermore, note that DistroWatch doesn't mention how well the likes of Artix, Gentoo and Void (among others) would function as excellent starting points to build your own fortress from.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
26 points (100.0% liked)

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