Steven D'Aprano composed on 2021-10-04 14:18 (UTC+1100):
After about a year of being not very happy with Fedora 29, I am planning to bite the bullet and rebuild my desktop. This time I want to install something that works with TDE, and preferably not running systemd.
Requirements:
- my PC is a low-end machine with Intel i3 CPU
- my Linux admin experience is low to medium (been using Linux for about
20 years, but mostly "if it works, don't fiddle with it")
- I want to run TDE.
What would you recommend?
IMO: Rethink your aversion to systemd. Eventually you'll run into software you simply cannot use because it depends on some part of the growing systemd monolith. All the major distros have switched to systemd. Those that don't are increasingly relying on kludges and a growing amount of forking upstream to keep going.
If you expect to live more than 10 more years, you might as well go mainstream sooner than later. As a Fedora user, you should be well along that path by now. TDE on Fedora is just as good as it is on any other distro. I have had it on Fedora several years, at least back to F30.
I find nothing about systemd that gets in my way, and enough I like. I've forgotten whatever it might have been about sysvinit I liked better.
Any i3 with ample RAM is more than plenty for running TDE. Any CPU ran KDE3 OK can run TDE OK.