I just got an email that PIA is going to raise the annual fee so it’s time to check the other VPN providers. My issue is that there’s only Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora GUI apps and I use Void and Gentoo. I managed to get the PIA GUI app working with Void and Gentoo so it might be possible with the others too. CLI is fine, just need to get used to use it that way. What’s your recommendation?
You can convert .deb files to xbps packages. There is a utility
You can also unpack .deb files with ar then install the stuff manually.
So if your new VPN has .deb packages, yes you can do it.
Sorry I dont use VPN, cant help there.
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Thanks Neville! I’ve seen the convert utility and might try it but would prefer to find an ebuild or just use the CLI.
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I just checked the PIA offers for new customers and there’s 3 years + 4months plan for 70€. It is so silly with these companies. They just don’t threat the customers right. Maybe I just wait for a month and then I’ll be their new customer 
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You could give one of these a try (excl. PIA):
Thanks! I’ve checked most of them covered in the article and all seem to have Debian/Ubuntu + Fedora covered. I’m going to stick with PIA but as a new user, 70€/3years and 4months was their offer for new customers. It was a bit of pain to get PIA’s app working with runit and I assume the same for the other VPNs so now I just need to change my credentials.
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You did well getting that going under runit.
There are rumours that Void is making moves towards S6. If they do, I hope they use the 66 service manager… it simplifies setting up scripts to start a service.
I haven’t tried S6. Is there a lot of changes to Runit?
S6 belongs to the same family as runit and daemontools and dinit. … they all use a supervisor daemon to make sure the service daemon stays up.
S6 is able to deal with dependencies among services .
If you want to look at init systems, I suggest you try the init-diversity spin which came out of the Antix community
https://antixlinux.com/unofficial-antix-23-init-divesity-spin/
It is available for Antix, Devuan, or MX
I had an extensive play with it
Thats enough
It was good for me. I was able to learn S6 with s6-rc or s6-66 service managers.
The 66 service manager is very new, and I was lucky to get some help from the developer. I went on to try Obarun Linux which is the 66 devrlopers own distro.
Dont jump into Obarun unprepared… Learn s6 and 66 first with one of the spins.
I still have to look at dinit. It seems to be ’ runit with dependencies’ … bit as sophisticsted as S6.
I think S6 can do anything systemd can do , without all the branching out into other parts of the system . If something is going to replace systemd, S6 would be the best contender at the moment.
Regards
Neville
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You’re deep in the rabbit hole 
I don’t have time to try all those init systems but will read the linked texts some day. I have openrc on Gentoo, systemd on another Gentoo, runit on two Voids and systemd on Mint. I barely run Mint, it’s just a dual boot as a backup system on my work laptop so I can chroot to Gentoo if needed.
I dont expect you to read all that entangled discussion.
Really, for a home desktop, OpenRC is about all you need.
Complicated init systems like systemd or S6 come into their own in servers, where you want to start and stop groups of services dynamically.
Another good place to look at init systems is Artix. They implement runit really well.
They offer a choice of sysV, openrc, runit , and s6. You cant switch, you choose one at install time.
It is a bit of a project with me. I am not trying to push anything onto you.
I will be looking at dinit and shepherd one day.
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Sorry if my reply made you think you we’re pushing me! It was not intended to offend you! I just am amazed how much you have put time to this. Please report how your dinit and shepherd tests went 
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No, it is OK.
I just wanted to make sure you did not get that impression.
Only way to learn is to spend time… I am getting old and am a slow learner now.
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