It's been about a year since I last shared my aspirations to build my own Linux distribution. I recently had a situation where I “needed” a custom distro, so I put one together. But then I was like: Hey, I’ve done this before!
These days, I don't watch YouTube much or follow Linux and tech circles, so I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to *nix happenings. The spark for my revival came when I decided to repurpose that old Geekom mini-PC into a living room HTPC.
I got this little mini-pc on Amazon for testing distros on Distro Delves. I didn't end up sticking with the show so this little guy just sat and collected dust on my desk. The specs are pretty good and I figured why not turn it into something useful: a custom HTPC/Steam Machine!
This Time Is Different
I've been down this road before and like many of my ambitious side quests, the original attempt didn't last long. The main reason the previous iteration of Hobby perished was that I didn't have a compelling use case for it beyond my primary desktop. Once I installed Arch Linux and customized it, the work was done; there was nothing left to build!
Hobby Linux 2.0 is a completely different beast for a few reasons:
- Debian (Testing) Core: Instead of Arch, this version is built atop of Debian for stability and automatic updates.
- Dogfooding: I actually have practical uses for it across my home setup! From my main workstation to homelab servers, living room HTPCs, and laptop(s).
- A Distro for Friends: A few of my non-Linux friends want to switch over, but because I’ve been out of the loop, I don't really have an off-the-shelf recommendation I feel confident giving them.
Roadmap & Progress
The road up ahead is still pretty casual. The living room HTPC setup has been a resounding success so far because it stays up to date, plays all my games without fuss, and gives me zero headaches.
The next logical step is getting it running smoothly on my laptop. Before doing that I need to iron out a few bugs in the ISO build process. Unlike the Arch-based predecessor, this version uses Calamares as the installer and not my janky bash installer. Most of my effort so far has gone into taming Calamares, but now that it's working nicely, I need to comb through the post-installation configuration to make sure everything lands right.
Alpha / Beta Testing
I shared a quick screenshot of Hobby on Sharkey recently, and people seemed to really like it. That got me thinking that I should probably establish an actual release schedule and let folks try it out. Since I'm designing this with non-Linux-native friends in mind, having real-world feedback would be super valuable.
Aside — Technically, this counts as Hobby Linux 2.0 given the architectural jump from Arch to Debian.
Once I get the desktop build finalized, I’ll spin off a test ISO for internal testers (subscribers to the Egee.io newsletter, Discord members, etc). After that, I'll open up the main Git repository. It’s private right now simply because I started it as a messy personal project and need to audit what I’ve checked in before making it public.
If you are interested in the project or helping out, follow me on Github or on the Fediverse!