1---
 2template: text.html
 3title: Status update
 4subtitle: Alpine Linux shenaningans and more
 5date: 2019-09-27
 6slug: 2019-09-27
 7---
 8
 9It's a lazy Friday afternoon here; yet another off day this week thanks to my
10uni's fest. My last "weekly" update was 10 days ago, and a lot has happened
11since then. Let's get right into it!
12
13## My switch to Alpine
14
15Previously, I ran Debian with Buster/Sid repos, and ever since this happened
16
17```shell
18$ dpkg --list | wc -l
193817
20
21# or something in that ballpark
22```
23
24I've been wanting to reduce my system's package count.
25
26Thus, I began my search for a smaller, simpler and lighter distro with a fairly
27sane package manager. I did come across Dylan Araps'
28[KISS Linux](https://getkiss.org) project, but it seemed a little too hands-on
29for me (and still relatively new). I finally settled on
30[Alpine Linux](https://alpinelinux.org). According to their website:
31
32> Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based 
33> on musl libc and busybox.
34
35The installation was a breeze, and I was quite surprised to see WiFi working
36OOTB. In the past week of my using this distro, the only major hassle I faced
37was getting my Minecraft launcher to run. The JRE isn't fully ported to `musl`
38yet.[^1] The solution to that is fairly trivial and I plan to write about it
39soon. (hint: it involves chroots)
40
41![rice](/static/img/rice-2019-09-27.png)
42
43## Packaging for Alpine
44
45On a related note, I've been busy packaging some of the stuff I use for Alpine
46-- you can see my personal [aports](https://github.com/icyphox/aports)
47repository if you're interested. I'm currently working on packaging Nim too, so
48keep an eye out for that in the coming week.
49
50## Talk selection at PyCon India!
51
52Yes! My buddy Raghav ([@_vologue](https://twitter.com/_vologue)) and I are
53going to be speaking at PyCon India about our recent smart lock security
54research. The conference is happening in Chennai, much to our convenience.
55If you're attending too, hit me up on Twitter and we can hang!
56
57## Other
58
59That essentially sums up the _technical_ stuff that I did. My Russian is going
60strong, my reading however, hasn't. I have _yet_ to finish those books! This
61week, for sure.
62
63Musically, I've been experimenting. I tried a bit of hip-hop and chilltrap, and
64I think I like it? I still find myself coming back to metalcore/deathcore.
65Here's a list of artists I discovered (and liked) recently:
66
67- [Before I Turn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3uKGwcwGWA)
68- 生 Conform 死 (couldn't find any official YouTube video, check Spotify)
69- [Treehouse Burning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66eFK1ttdC4)
70- [Lee McKinney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-w3XM2PwOY)
71- [Berried Alive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUibXK7F3PM) (rediscovered)
72
73That's it for now, I'll see you next week!
74
75[^1]: The [Portola Project](https://aboullaite.me/protola-alpine-java/)