Despite their marketing, this script does not spark joy.
Eg, they have a "zen optimize" command, which clears caches, nukes /tmp, turns swap off and on again and runs fstrim. You don't need to do any of this stuff. Clearing cache and swap will make programs run slower. Wiping /tmp can be harmful to running processes.
Generally, clearing caches will make programs run slower once (on first run after the clear), but it could speed things up if there's a massive amount of other stuff cached or if the cached thing you're trying to run got corrupted somehow.
There is no situation in which having a populated page cache will slow things down, since those are the pages that linux will drop first to use for whatever else needs them.
I think it's just supposed to make installing commonly used things seem easier.
I have to admit that (assuming they both work flawlessly) it'd be easier to type "zen install steam" than it is to manually edit a file and run four commands following the directions here https://wiki.debian.org/Steam
"Optimized & Light" but also the system requirements say it needs 10 GB for the just the system itself with 25 GB+ recommended. Regular old Debian recommends 10 GB of disk space too (but allows for installations that come in under 1 GB if you really want light)
What kind of bloat did they get rid of to reach the same footprint as the OS they started from?
Haven't investigated that much so there might be some big catch I'm missing, but I really wish people would stop making custom OSes and just help out an existing project
In the worst cases you get people who just want to say they made an OS by slapping their name on an existing distro after changing the default background image or making a couple tweaks. That's a lot easier to than to contribute something meaningful to an existing project.
More charitably, it's faster and a lot less complicated to modify a distro to your liking than trying to get a major distribution to cater to your whims and philosophy and making your version avilable to others gives them the option of easily installing your new features/modifications as is or using what parts they want. That's the joy of of FOSS. Even when the changes are modest, if they are shared and even a little useful then someone else can incorporate them or build off of them.
I do not understand the purpose of the `zen` tool, which is a giant bash script with hardcoded install/uninstall steps for each "package": https://github.com/Zenclora/build/blob/697c20a79b5638b4447bf...
Despite their marketing, this script does not spark joy.
Eg, they have a "zen optimize" command, which clears caches, nukes /tmp, turns swap off and on again and runs fstrim. You don't need to do any of this stuff. Clearing cache and swap will make programs run slower. Wiping /tmp can be harmful to running processes.
It all seems like a big LLM vomit.
https://github.com/Zenclora/build/blob/697c20a79b5638b4447bf...
Generally, clearing caches will make programs run slower once (on first run after the clear), but it could speed things up if there's a massive amount of other stuff cached or if the cached thing you're trying to run got corrupted somehow.
There is no situation in which having a populated page cache will slow things down, since those are the pages that linux will drop first to use for whatever else needs them.
I mean, the comments with numbered steps are pretty much a dead giveaway that its just AI slip.
If I were to guess, I would say Gemini 3/3.1, as it tends to add a lot of numbered steps comments, more so than other models from my experience
Putting money down on this being primarily LLM coded
I think it's just supposed to make installing commonly used things seem easier.
I have to admit that (assuming they both work flawlessly) it'd be easier to type "zen install steam" than it is to manually edit a file and run four commands following the directions here https://wiki.debian.org/Steam
We're getting vibecoded Linux distros now?
"Optimized & Light" but also the system requirements say it needs 10 GB for the just the system itself with 25 GB+ recommended. Regular old Debian recommends 10 GB of disk space too (but allows for installations that come in under 1 GB if you really want light)
What kind of bloat did they get rid of to reach the same footprint as the OS they started from?
Haven't investigated that much so there might be some big catch I'm missing, but I really wish people would stop making custom OSes and just help out an existing project
I wish everyone thought exactly like me too, it’d be great getting exactly what I wanted and basically the world would become utopia over night.
In the worst cases you get people who just want to say they made an OS by slapping their name on an existing distro after changing the default background image or making a couple tweaks. That's a lot easier to than to contribute something meaningful to an existing project.
More charitably, it's faster and a lot less complicated to modify a distro to your liking than trying to get a major distribution to cater to your whims and philosophy and making your version avilable to others gives them the option of easily installing your new features/modifications as is or using what parts they want. That's the joy of of FOSS. Even when the changes are modest, if they are shared and even a little useful then someone else can incorporate them or build off of them.
What do they need help with?
It's not an OS, it's a distro
Debian isn't known for being bloated so I don't get what the selling point here is. If I want a stripped down barebones system why not just use Arch?