Reader supplied reviews for Void
Average rating
9.1 from 295 review(s)
Version: current
Rating: 2
Date: 2026-08-28
Country: Japan
Votes: 6
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Void Linux was once my favorite distribution. I used it for more than five years and genuinely loved its simplicity, stability, and rolling-release model. Sadly, those qualities have been overshadowed by what now feels like a serious lack of maintenance, leadership, and communication.
The official documentation and news are especially concerning. The Full Disk Encryption guide has remained outdated for years. It still describes GRUB’s limited LUKS2 support, recommends LUKS1, and does not reflect modern Argon2id support. When changes to components such as dracut break existing configurations and cause issues like a second password prompt during boot, the official website provides no timely explanation, update, or acknowledgement. Users are left to investigate and reverse-engineer solutions on their own.
Void also appears to be falling behind in package and feature maintenance. Some packages, such as ZuluCrypt, remain available despite showing little or no visible maintenance for years. This does not necessarily mean that every such package is unusable—Cryptsetup, for example, can be used instead—but it does raise serious questions about the reliability and maintenance status of the repository as a whole. Likewise, upstream GRUB has gained Argon2id support, while Void still appears to be relying on GRUB 2.12. It would not be surprising if that situation continued for years.
Void’s official forum on Reddit often provides workarounds, but users may still be left without clear, authoritative solutions to important problems. Community advice cannot fully compensate for outdated official documentation and the lack of communication from the project.
I understand that Void is developed in the spare time of a small number of people and that it is primarily a volunteer project. However, good intentions and a long history cannot substitute for active maintenance, current documentation, modern security features, and accountability. The current Void feels neglected, unstable, and increasingly untrustworthy.
After more than five years of using Void Linux, it is painful to say this, but I have permanently moved away from it. Void was once my favorite distribution, but I will not be returning, and I can no longer recommend it as a dependable operating system.
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Version: current
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-08-24
Country: France
Votes: 21
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Pure KISS philosophy, an extremely fast distro using Runit as a service manager instead of the labyrinthic systemd, also one of the fastest packages manager (XBPS), even faster than pacman. With this distro, you exactly know what you have on your machine, it's the complete mastering of the system you target. After having testing so many distros, this one is called the distro hopper stopper, and I know why now !
It is also very safe and stable, without sacrifying modernity.
For the cons, it is not a newbie distribution, it is the price to have a system very refined, tailored, without having a lot of useless bloating softwares.
Stéphane.
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Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-08-09
Country: United States
Votes: 37
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I've used Linux since Ubuntu gave away free CDs when I was in middle school. I've tried essentially every distro under the sun.
I will say that Void has not been a small change for me, or a lateral move. I feel like I finally don't need to think or care about my distro anymore. I used to have "old hardware" distros and "new hardware" distros, like Fedora w KDE vs. Debian or Xubuntu. Now I just use Void+Sway on every system.
XBPS is the best package manager I've ever used. I don't say that lightly.
- It is fast. Maybe some will debate it vs. pacman, but it certainly seems to be the fastest I've used.
- the packages are small and sane, and don't pull in a bunch of junk you don't need.
- there is a clear distinction between base/minimal packages and add-on goodie packages.
- the packages don't come with "clever" or "helpful" configuration changes -- Not pre-install hooks, post-install hooks, default configs that make assumptions about why you're installing the package, etc.
- the packages that exist are up to date ENOUGH to be forgotten. I don't think about package age, things just kinda work as I expect. I don't often install things and say "dang I need a newer one"
- downloads are quick, dependency resolution is very sane, and I have never once experienced a conflict over 2 years. Granted not too long, but more than someone who's never used it.
The default installation media is from 2025-02-02. It's currently 2026-08. I'm sure it doesn't matter to update it since the install media simply updates without a hiccup.
And yes, the updates actually do work. I have never used a rolling distro where I genuinely did not need to worry about things breaking. I don't even think about it. I blindly update. Not the strongest use of my critical thinking, but I used to care, and it never mattered. So at this point I don't think about it beyond reading to see what will change in case it breaks, but it never does. It is boringly reliable.
"void linux is called that because it's void of packages" -- well no. It has everything I need for Go development, occasional steam games, light video editing, 3d printing tools.
Yes, it is sometimes lacking certain packages, but these days AppImages/Flatpaks solve this issue for any dangling concerns, and if not, there is xbps-src which does actually work pretty well. And unlike the AUR, does not contain an automated "you're supposed to read the PKGBUILDs but nobody does" culture surrounding it.
10/10. Love it.
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