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And then I switched to Solus
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that after a mini distro hopping session I ended up just settling on on Ubuntu Desktop for use on my Framework Laptop 13.
Switched from NixOS to Ubuntu Desktop on my Framework Laptop 13
Well, a couple of weeks later, I've switched to Solus.
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It occurred to me that I hadn't given Solus a proper test while auditioning distros. I'd used an old version of Solus from last year, which isn't much of an issue in itself as Solus is effectively a rolling release distro, but I'd not played with the new installer, or used it with its Pipewire by default setup.
Also, as my Entroware Apollo reached 7 years old, I felt a twinge of nostalgia for Solus, which is the distro I used for my 1st year with the laptop. The first couple of stickers I added to its lid were the Solus and Budgie logos, they're both still there.
So I wiped FreeBSD from my Apollo laptop and installed Solus 4.5, just for the fun of it.
Which was a bit of a mistake ... as I really liked it! 😃
I found myself updating my dotfiles and update scripts to install a bunch of stuff I regularly use, and found all but a handful of packages were available as a Solus native eopkg.
To fill the package gaps, I decided to give Flatpak a go for the desktop apps, and Homebrew a go for the CLI apps.
The handful of Flatpaks have worked very well, things like Synology Drive, Plexamp and PhpStorm have no problems at all. I would normally prefer Snaps to Flatpaks, but as Solus is deprecating the use of Snaps on the OS, it's a relief to find out that these apps I use every day are working well as Flatpaks.
Homebrew on the other hand did not work well at all. It'd fail to install anything because it could not find /etc/ld.so.conf.
I did a bunch of searching for potential solutions, nothing relevant turned up. Luckily, I'm getting kinda smart at testing this kind of thing where I have no idea whether something is going to work, or end up spitting files all over my system. I'd tested Homebrew in a Solus VM created with Quickemu, having first created a snapshot, so it was easy for me to roll back the VM and test a different method of getting the last remaining CLI apps I need.
Nixpkgs to the rescue!
I've used the Determinate Systems nix installer a few times before, it works great, and worked flawlessly for me again on Solus.
With it I was able to install some CLI style packages that are important to me, but not yet available in eopkg format, things like Atuin, Elm, Gleam and Kiln.
I say not yet, because I'm keen to try and create eopkg versions of these apps that I needed to use Nixpkgs for. I've already submitted a couple of super simple packages to make sure I'm all set up for creating eopkgs, and if they turn out to be accepted, that'll no doubt give me the courage to attempt a couple more that I need, but are likely a bit more cumbersome to package up.
Anyway, I found myself using my Apollo with Solus all the time, the Budgie desktop version of course, forgot to mention that before. I preferred it to using the GNOME based Ubuntu Desktop on my Framework, even though my Framework Laptop is way more powerful than my ancient Entroware Apollo.
As such, it was pretty much a no-brainer that I should see whether Solus 4.5 worked ok on the Framework Laptop 13.
As you've no doubt figured out by now, Solus works great on my 12th Gen Framework Laptop 13, even though Solus Budgie does not have fractional scaling for the desktop display.
To get a better resolution than either the too high density natural 2256x1504 resolution at 100%, but way too blown up resolution at 200%, I just added an entry to ~/.xprofile to scale the display back down a bit when at 200%.
xrandr --output eDP-1 --scale '1.5x1.5'
Other than that minor "manual" tweak, everything else has been been super smooth when running Solus on my Framework laptop, all the hardware works as expected.
I like the way Budgie works. Even though I've been using the i3 window manager almost exclusively for the last few years, Budgie's nice sensible "traditional" set up is familiar and easy to use. It has plenty keyboard shortcuts for things like throwing a window to one half or a quarter of the screen, or managing multiple workspaces, which I use extensively.
I tend to work with one app at a time, maximized, sometimes full screen, and Budgie supports that style or workflow effortlessly. I've therefore not really had to change the way I work at all.
Maybe one thing that helped my transition to Budgie on my laptop is that I installed Ulauncher, which I've been using for a good few months on my main desktop machine that currently runs i3 on NixOS.
I started using Ulauncher on my main machine after having started to use Ulauncher with Sway on my Framework laptop as a means to simplify and unify my config of all those little things you want quick access to, such as an emoji picker, or clipboard history.
Even though Solus Budgie has a perfectly fine quick app runner hooked up to Alt+F2 by default, Ulauncher is my one stop shop for launching apps and quickly accessing other utilities via the keyboard, regardless of the machine I'm using.
Probably the only thing that I'm missing from my i3/Sway config while using Budgie, is being able to set a rule to make Firefox's picture-in-picture window sticky on all workspaces when I pop out the window while watching YouTube. The picture-in-picture window is set as "Always on top" by default, but I just have to right click it and pick "Always on Visible Workspace" to make the window visible on all workspaces. I wish I could automate that, but it's not a big deal either.
So all in all, it's been a great experience returning to Solus, I'm thoroughly enjoying its simplicity and attention to detail.
I'm also looking forward to seeing how Solus progresses over the next few years. There's a potential for a lot of great things coming to Solus with its partnership with Serpent OS to modernize some of its infrastructure and underpinnings, and other initiatives.
I wonder how long I can resist nuking my desktop machine and installing Solus on it? 🤔😆
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"And then I switched to Solus" was published on August 6, 2024.