Just Enough Chimera Linux

4/13/2026 at 8:52:43 PM

For those that like the LLVM/musl/mimalloc choices of chimera, but also want signed commits, signed reviews, container-native design, full source bootstrapping, 100% deterministic builds, and multi-party-signed artifacts check out https://stagex.tools

by lrvick

4/14/2026 at 12:14:15 AM

Don't get mimalloc and mallocng mixed up though, completely different animals.

by fuhsnn

4/14/2026 at 2:49:06 AM

100%, and it is indeed mimalloc, though you can also use glibc or mallocng if needed.

by lrvick

4/14/2026 at 3:57:05 AM

The website you linked says mallocng?

by fuhsnn

4/14/2026 at 9:06:07 AM

Out of date. We just merged mimalloc as the default last release.

by lrvick

4/13/2026 at 9:21:01 PM

Really love that project. Is there any planned support for NVIDIA drivers and runtime?

by r0l1

4/13/2026 at 11:00:29 PM

If anyone sponsors buying me modern Nvidia cards with open kernel support, I would gladly test and support them.

by lrvick

4/14/2026 at 5:56:42 AM

I have a RTX 2080 to give away. Interested?

by r0l1

4/14/2026 at 9:12:16 AM

I was about to say I would need a newer gen card to test the new open kernel driver stack, but on some research it appears that the 2080 series was the first to support them, and with that new knowledge I realized I have a 2080Ti on hand already.

So thanks for offering yours. It made me remember I actually own one!

by lrvick

4/14/2026 at 12:13:01 AM

Now this is WHY I love UNIX and UNIX-likes, the fact you can chop and change core components like the Kernel, Userspace, Init, etc. and (within compatibility limits i.e. MUSL/GLIBC) run a hybrid system like Chimera.

Would I run Chimera as a daily-drive? Probably not. Is it cool that someone can? Absolutely!

by fennec-posix

4/14/2026 at 4:22:13 AM

When I last looked a few years ago, there were some efforts and successes in the far East doing "chimera Windows", mostly based on running an older userland (like XP) on a newer kernel (10).

by userbinator

4/14/2026 at 9:17:05 AM

There is the Anglophone https://loss32.org/ project for a Linux distro with a Win32 desktop. It's #loss32 on Libera Chat.

by networked

4/14/2026 at 12:22:37 PM

if you want a stable chimera linux as a daily driver, go to voidlinux.org. chimera linux started as a void linux fork until it became it's own thing. they share the same dna. cbuild started as a xbps-src fork.

by boltzmann64

4/14/2026 at 12:27:57 PM

no it didn't

source: made the thing

by q66

4/14/2026 at 12:10:46 AM

This seems interesting, but I've been using Alpine as a desktop distro wth ZFS for years now, it has native support and ZBM is available in the community repo. Not sure what advantages Chimera would add.

by JCattheATM

4/14/2026 at 1:16:09 AM

Chimera uses mimalloc instead of musl’s mallocng.

https://chimera-linux.org/docs/configuration/musl

by stock_toaster

4/14/2026 at 2:51:34 AM

Alpine and Chimera however both are not reproducible or full source bootstrapped or signed and do not enforce code review. I would honestly steer clear of both for anything but low risk hobby use cases.

IMO they should be best thought of as research projects useful for reference by distros designed for production use.

by lrvick

4/13/2026 at 9:31:03 PM

Speaking of OpenZFS encryption, has there ever been any third party review of the source code? Or any testing of any kind of its effectiveness?

by Crontab

4/14/2026 at 2:33:05 AM

Very cool and interesting.. Just found out it was started by a previous Void Linux maintainer, Void linux is great as well!

by czernobog

4/14/2026 at 8:52:07 AM

I don't need politics on my desktop, so no to Chimera Linux.

by sazz