In this episode of Distrohoppers’ Digest, Dale and Majid dig into two very different Linux experiences: the stripped-down, do-it-yourself world of Void Linux Base ISO and the sleek but opinionated desktop of elementary OS 8.1. Along the way, they also share what they’ve been tinkering with lately, from replacing Pi-hole with Technitium DNS to hopping back to Debian Xfce, plus a few monthly mishaps and surprises that remind us Linux experimentation doesn’t always go to plan.

They also revisit past distro experiences, including Firefox oddities on Zorin OS and a recovery story involving Fedora after CachyOS trouble. The episode wraps with listener feedback, more thoughts on Bodhi and MX Linux-style system rescue options, and the usual appreciation for the tools, people, and open-source projects that keep the Linux community thriving.

We reviewed Pika OS and MX Linux Plasma Edition. Dale tends to the server farm and Majid takes on Waydroid.

Jim from mintCast joins us to review Puppy Linux TrixiePup 64 Wayland. Along with Jim’s grub issue and Dale’s adventure with QEMU/KVM.

Majid reviews CachyOS, Bill from mintCast, and Linux OTC joins us to talk about Arch Linux.

In this episode Dale uses his iPad as a laptop and Majid fights with Windows 11 and bought a new to him Lenovo Chromebook. We review Ubuntu Budgie 25.10 and Pop!_OS 24.04 with the new Cosmic Desktop.

This episode was recorded on the 20th of December, 2025. For this show, we will be reviewing Ultramarine Linux Plasma Edition and Ghost BSD.

The pod is being rebooted. We discuss our activities during the past year. Our experiences with Fedora, LMDE6, Debian 13, and more.

Link To Full Show Transcript

This month Eric reviews Bluefin Project and Dale reviews Archman. In Monthly Foibles, Dale had a productive month setting up Nextcloud, Pi-Hole, Ubuntu Server, and various other systems, while Eric discusses his experience setting up a drawing tablet for his wife using a Dell Active Pen and Windows 11. In Updates, we cover Debian’s adoption of Tmpfs for its /tmp folder and upcoming changes to APT. Beautiful Failures covers challenges encountered by Dale during while attempting to move a hard drive to a new system. Reviews focuses on Archman and Bluefin Project distributions, but specific information is not included in the excerpt. We also cover some New Releases and get some Feedback.

• 00:02:09 – Monthly Foibles
• 00:48:07 – Updates
• 00:51:54 – Beautiful Failures
• 00:54:36 – Reviews
• 01:50:24 – Feedback and Errata
• 01:56:10 – New Releases
• 02:01:17 – Announcements
• 02:02:03 – Acknowledgements