2023 in Chimera Linux

Chimera Linux is a novel Linux distribution built around FreeBSD core tools and
the LLVM toolchain. Since its initial launch in 2021, it has made a lot of
progress and is now in alpha stage. The system can be deployed on a wide array
of hardware and many people are using it as their desktop system; it works on
x86_64, AArch64, POWER (little and big endian) as well as RISC-V and by now
comes with thousands of packages.
While trying to be practical, Chimera is also highly hardened, partly thanks to
the LLVM toolchain, rendering it immune to various security issues other
distros are vulnerable to. It has transparent and robust infrastructure,
ensuring smooth deployment of packages. We are also developing various new
tooling that the whole ecosystem can benefit from, including the Turnstile
session tracker. Service management is based around Dinit, a modern,
supervising system; we maintain and create a variety of tooling around it,
trying to break the existing status quo with systemd, while abandoning legacy
approaches.
2023 has seen several major milestones, so I will focus on these, while also
giving a short overview so that people unfamiliar with the system don't feel
lost. I will also explain how our work benefits the entire Linux ecosystem, as
well as beyond.
Slides available at: www.slideshare.net/slideshows...
(c) FOSDEM 2024
3 & 4 February 2024
fosdem.org/2024/schedule/even...