Deuan 1.0 is an excellent alternative if you want to stick to the original Unix philosophy, and (like me) have gotten fed up with systemd's sloppiness towards more complex use cases.
But it isn't the easiest to access. Stuck with the Linux 3.16 kernel, it often struggles with new hardware, and you may not want to spend a partition or two to have it as a test/alternative system. Turns out that you don't have to. Using a poor man's install of Knopix, you can easily accomodate Devuan, set up almost exactly like Debian live Jessie/Stretch. And running under kvm, you have the infrastructure necessary to do all the installation and downloading you need using the connection through Knoppix.
I have described the procedure for Debian 8.3/9.1 elsewhere, and basically the same will work for Devuan. You drop the squashfs live system file in an easily accessible place, set up a volume for persistent store where it is convenient, and define the correct boot parameters. Nest, you can turn to Devuan ASCII, their version of Debian stretch, which is under development right now, starting to become useful. And using a much more updated kernel.
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB 2x16GB DDR4-2666 PC4-21300 288Pin 2666Mhz Memory Ram
$99.99
A-Tech 8GB DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM 204-Pin Memory RAM PC3L DDR3L 1x 8G
$13.99
Lot of 2 32GB DDR4 2666 PC4-21300 SODIMM RAM Modules Mixed Brand
$60.00
Crucial DDR3L 16GB 1600 2x 8GB PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM Memory RAM PC3 16G DDR3
$21.50
HyperX FURY DDR3 8GB 16GB 32GB 1600 MHz PC3-12800 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 240pin
$12.90
Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) Kit DDR3L 1600MHz PC3-12800 UDIMM Desktop 240-Pin CL11 RAM
$23.33
8GB PC3L-12800S 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 RAM | Grade A
$12.00
Samsung 128GB (4x 32GB) M86B4G70DM0-CMA3 PC3-14900L 4Rx4 DDR3 ECC Reg Server Mem
$39.99
Lot of 50 4GB DDR3 PC3 Sticks Desktop Ram - mixed speeds and brands
$88.00
HyperX FURY DDR4 16GB 3200 MHz PC4-25600 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 288pin 2x 16GB
$127.20