If not solus, what distro would you be using

brent I read the owner had to abandon the project so hopefully someone steps up.

I heard the same thing, but since then, there's been a constant stream of updates. At least as often as Solus updates, because every time I do a Solus update, packages need upgrades for Ultramariine as well. So, apparently someone (if not several someones) stepped up to the challenge.

They're still on Budgie 10.5.3, I think, but that hardly seems to matter in actual usability. I'm pretty sure that will be updted when there's more of a reason to do so ... like when Budgie 10.7 is released.

WetGeek Well, the same for me, I failed to install it in a qemu virtual machine.

WetGeek So, apparently someone (if not several someones) stepped up to the challenge.

There is at least one contributor to Ultramarine Linux active in the BuddiesOfBudgie chat. So, it seems like the project is still at least somewhat active.

WetGeek For those who like to explore interesting distros, Pisi is certainly one you'd enjoy taking a look at.

Just a followup ...

A couple days ago I got a couple of emails telling me that the Pisi bugs I'd reported there had been resolved. I figured it was worth another look, so I downloaded a new .ISO file and created a new Pisi VM. Or, I should say, I tried to.

After selecting US English as my working language (their default is Turkish, of course), I noticed that the installer has been improved significantly. At the end, though, I couldn't actually launch the VM. It just booted to a CLI login. And after logging on and running startx, the screen became trash.

I always offer a second chance, so I reinstalled the new Pisi .ISO file and tried again. I left that .ISO in place as I rebooted at the end of installation, planning to let the installer start again before I tried to reboot and launch Pisi. That's sometimes worked with other VM installations, but not this time. Pisi simply doesn't start with a GUI that works.

That's the end of my interest in Pisi for now. Maybe I'll try again in a few months. Surely this kind of persormance won't escape the team's attention.

just Solus actually convinced me to leave Void behind, funny enough. The boot times and runit are just unmatched, but it really did feel like a server and not a laptop for those many years I was on it.

teep The boot times and runit are just unmatched

Would you say that Void boots faster than Solus? Solus is not bad in this regard.

If the total unfortunate happened and Solus was no more I would use PCLinuxOS.
It is also a rolling release.
As for DE I would probably go with Darkstar, which is a reduced app KDE.
BTW: Have been running Solus Budgie as my main distro since November 2016, so now over 6 years.

Closest thing I can find is to spin up an Arch.

MintSpider BTW: Have been running Solus Budgie as my main distro since November 2016, so now over 6 years.

yep. we were in a land far from flarum no doubt. question I always wanted to know but unable to answer...maybe you can answer it. I was around for the 3.999999 upgrade....so what came before that? were we initially on some obscure 3.7X version?

MintSpider As for DE I would probably go with Darkstar, which is a reduced app KDE.

Being a KDE fan, and having never explored DarkStar, you got my curiosity going, so I created a VM using the latest .ISO file. "Reduced" hardly describes it. When I could do nothing with the initial VM window, I tried to resize it. Apparently this is the only resolution available:

The display is driven by VirtualBox's VBoxSVGA video support, which has provided a very long list of resolutions for other distros' KDE implementations that I've examined, including 1920x1080, which is the full-screen resolution of the host laptop.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this really the maximum resolution that PCLinuxOS KDE Darkstar supports?

WetGeek I never use VirtualBox so unable to answer that direct question.
On the Alienware M15x laptop I have PCLinuxOS Darkstar running at 1600x900.

MintSpider On the Alienware M15x laptop I have PCLinuxOS Darkstar running at 1600x900.

Thanks for your answer. It encouraged me to try the second (older) option, the VMSVGA support, and that indeed worked. This distro is now full-screen on my laptop, and exhibits none of the problems that occurred with the previous version.

I have a feelling I'm gonna enjoy working with this version of KDE!

MintSpider If the total unfortunate happened and Solus was no more I would use PCLinuxOS.

For me it was the other way around . Solus was my fallback for PCLinuxOS

WetGeek Reduced KDE, reduced pixels

PCLinuxOS KDE Darkstar - Conclusion

Sadly, I need to give up on my exploration of this distribution. Apparently it was installing the VBox guest additions that caused the worst of the bad behavior, and I don't know of a way to remove those once the VM's kernel has been so modified.

I could only return to that previous state by re-inserting the .ISO file into the virtual CD drive, and doing another installation from the beginning, but I attempted to install those guest additions for a reason. Every time I started, or rebooted, the VM, it lost the resolution I'd selected in the displays settings, and appeared as a small version of itself that made working with it difficult.

At this time, I don't have another computer that I can dedicate to trying this distro on hardware, so there's not much more I can do with it now. My spare laptop has been setup for a visiting family member to use, who is arriving this week.

During the time I spent with PCLinuxOS KDE Darkstar, I was very impressed with it, aside from this obvious disappointment. Its production values are among the best I've seen. I was able to do an update and upgrade using the first package manager I tried -- apt. I was able to install all the software I wanted from its repository, so I had no need to look online for such as Vivaldi, as I've needed to do with various other distros. Its installation required only about 5 GB of disk space for a reasonably complete OS.

So, yes, I'm saddened that I can't go any farther with this exploration at this time, and I don't want to discourage anyone (@brent maybe?) who might be interested in installing this distro on their hardware. With a video card that can tolerate its 16-bit graphics, it could be a real contender.

WetGeek I've seen the 16-bit color message appear when GRUB appears, so I think the OS in itself does support 32-bit color.