1---
 2template: text.html
 3title: Weekly status update, 09/17–09/27
 4subtitle: Alpine Linux shenaningans and more
 5date: 2019-09-27
 6---
 7
 8It's a lazy Friday afternoon here; yet another off day this week thanks to my
 9uni's fest. My last "weekly" update was 10 days ago, and a lot has happened
10since then. Let's get right into it!
11
12### My switch to Alpine
13
14Previously, I ran Debian with Buster/Sid repos, and ever since this happened
15
16```shell
17$ dpkg --list | wc -l
183817
19
20# or something in that ballpark
21```
22
23I've been wanting to reduce my system's package count.
24
25Thus, I began my search for a smaller, simpler and lighter distro with a fairly
26sane package manager. I did come across Dylan Araps'
27[KISS Linux](https://getkiss.org) project, but it seemed a little too hands-on
28for me (and still relatively new). I finally settled on
29[Alpine Linux](https://alpinelinux.org). According to their website:
30
31> Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based 
32> on musl libc and busybox.
33
34The installation was a breeze, and I was quite surprised to see WiFi working
35OOTB. In the past week of my using this distro, the only major hassle I faced
36was getting my Minecraft launcher to run. The JRE isn't fully ported to `musl`
37yet.[^1] The solution to that is fairly trivial and I plan to write about it
38soon. (hint: it involves chroots)
39
40![rice](/static/img/rice-2019-09-27.png)
41
42### Packaging for Alpine
43
44On a related note, I've been busy packaging some of the stuff I use for Alpine
45-- you can see my personal [aports](https://github.com/icyphox/aports)
46repository if you're interested. I'm currently working on packaging Nim too, so
47keep an eye out for that in the coming week.
48
49### Talk selection at PyCon India!
50
51Yes! My buddy Raghav ([@_vologue](https://twitter.com/_vologue)) and I are
52going to be speaking at PyCon India about our recent smart lock security
53research. The conference is happening in Chennai, much to our convenience.
54If you're attending too, hit me up on Twitter and we can hang!
55
56### Other
57
58That essentially sums up the _technical_ stuff that I did. My Russian is going
59strong, my reading however, hasn't. I have _yet_ to finish those books! This
60week, for sure.
61
62Musically, I've been experimenting. I tried a bit of hip-hop and chilltrap, and
63I think I like it? I still find myself coming back to metalcore/deathcore.
64Here's a list of artists I discovered (and liked) recently:
65
66- [Before I Turn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3uKGwcwGWA)
67- 生 Conform 死 (couldn't find any official YouTube video, check Spotify)
68- [Treehouse Burning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66eFK1ttdC4)
69- [Lee McKinney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-w3XM2PwOY)
70- [Berried Alive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUibXK7F3PM) (rediscovered)
71
72That's it for now, I'll see you next week!
73
74[^1]: The [Portola Project](https://aboullaite.me/protola-alpine-java/)