Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
ZDNET's key takeaways
- Nutyx isn't your ordinary Linux distribution.
- The ‘Linux-from-scratch' distro will challenge you.
- Nutyx can be downloaded and installed for free.
For most users, the point-and-click of modern Linux is just fine. After all, who wants to work with an operating system that will challenge them?
A lot of people, actually.
Yes, some folks flourish when faced with a challenge. For those diehards, the likes of Ubuntu or Linux Mint might be a bit off-putting because they are far too easy to use.
Also: 7 Linux distros you should avoid until you've mastered the command line
Masochists, right?
When you take this to extremes, you wind up with Gentoo, which is a big challenge for most Linux users. And then there's Arch Linux, with its involved installer script.
What lies between these extremes of too easy and too hard is the sweet spot occupied by a distro called Nutyx.
Nutyx is a Linux-from-scratch distribution (it's not based on any other distro) that — according to the Nutyx website — is “an excellent operating system for people who want to commit themselves to developing their skills further and learning how a Linux system is put together.”
I'd never tried Nutyx before, and I'm glad I finally did. This Linux distribution took me by surprise; I assumed its difficulty level would lie between Arch and Gentoo. In fact, it's a bit of both, yet neither. In other words, Nutyx is a distro in its own right.
What really took me by surprise was the installation. I anticipated a lot of heavy lifting. However, the command-line installer was much easier than I expected. At the same time, it was also different.
The installation had me going back to the basics, reminding me what it was like when I first started using Linux. Many of those wonderfully designed, user-friendly OS installers have made me complacent because I can point and click my way to a fully realized desktop. With Nutyx, I had to put my brain to work — and that was a good thing.
Also: This is my favorite Linux distro of all time – and I've tried them all
OK, let's take a step backward.
What is Nutyx?
As I said, Nutyx is a Linux-from-scratch distribution. This distro comes in four flavors:
- Base – just the bare bones with no GUI.
- Xfce – the Xfce desktop.
- GNOME – the GNOME desktop
- KDE – the KDE Plasma desktop
All of the above use systemd as their init system, and each currently ships with Linux kernel 6.18.
Nytux doesn't use any of the typical package managers. Instead, Nutyx uses CARDS, which stands for Create, Add, Remove, and Download System. CARDS can manage dependencies and handle runtime dependencies. While fairly easy to use, it is a command-line-only tool. Although you might decide to go with a version of Nutyx that would normally have its own package manager frontend (such as KDE Discover or GNOME Software), those apps will not work. There's also no GUI for CARDS at the moment.
Also: 3 ways to switch Linux distros without losing all your data
CARDS is used just like any command-line installer. For example, if you want to install LibreOffice, you could issue the command:
sudo cards install libreoffice
What surprised me about CARDS is that it's considerably slower than other package managers. Either that, my virtual machine had trouble with its network connection, or the service hosting the Nutyx repositories was just slow. Downloading the LibreOffice app took over 10 minutes. Given LibreOffice isn't a gigantic application, this shouldn't be the case.
No matter the reason, CARDS did finish, and I had LibreOffice ready to go.
Nutyx comes with a bare minimum collection of preinstalled apps, including Firefox, VLC media player, Yakuake, Dragon Player, Elisa, and a handful of others.
OK, I think it's time to address the installation.
The Nutyx installation
I'm accustomed to Linux installations being fast and simple. Boot the ISO and walk through the point-and-click affair. Nutyx does not have a GUI installer. Instead, this distribution opts to go the ncurses (text-only) route. I can certainly hang with a text-based installer; after all, my first few years with Linux were CLI installs all the way.
Also: The best Linux distros for beginners make switching from MacOS or Windows so easy
But the problem wasn't the text-based installer. What caught me off guard was the speed at which Nutyx completed the installation. Most Linux distributions can be installed in less than 5 minutes (with room to spare). Nutyx was installed in less than 2 minutes. Most distributions also let you peek behind the curtain to see what was going on with the installer. Not Nutyx. Once you run the install-nutyx command, you answer a few questions (your username, name, hostname, and password), and it's off and running. Seconds later, you're presented with the login manager.
Because installation happened impossibly fast, I assumed it failed. I rebooted, again expecting to have to boot back into the live instance, but that wasn't the case. I logged in with the username I added during the install, and everything was great.
This is crazy. Surely this only installed a temporary instance. To check that out, I shut down the virtual machine and started it.
Once again, I was greeted with the same instance, proving the installation worked.
I then set about using the distribution. I installed applications and did the usual thing.
Next, I decided to give it my usual test and installed the local AI, Ollama. The download speed was agonizingly slow. I tested this against other machines; turns out, the issue was on the virtual machine end. I rebooted, only to find that I had to recreate the user.
Also: 5 atomic Linux distros I trust for stress-free OS updates – and why
I told you this would be a challenge.
This time around, I decided to go the CARDS route and, on a whim, ran the command:
sudo cars install nutyx
Oddly enough, the package manager set about downloading the nutyx.cards package for installation.
Turns out, installing the OS is fairly straightforward — once you know what you're doing.
Within the file /etc/cards.conf, you'll find a listing of the collections you can install. In that list is:
- gui-extra – all graphical applications and desktops
- gui – minimal graphical interface
- cli-extra – all console applications
- cli – minimal console interface
I decided to go all out and issued the command:
sudo cards install gui-extra
That set out to install roughly 900 packages. Now, it was just a matter of waiting it out until the lengthy install process completes.
My conclusion
Color me mad, but I enjoyed working with Nutyx. I found myself savoring the scavenger hunt to figure out how to get this up and running. It was challenging but rewarding.
Also: My 5 favorite Linux distros that are ready to use out of the box (no setup required)
If you're like me and you enjoy a good challenge, give Nutyx a try. If you just want to point-and-click your way to an OS installation, you should probably avoid Nutyx.
