Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

Anonymo · 2010-09-14 14:09:07

@simon

Arch hardly has any breakage. Your post seems awful demanding at the end. " can Arch deliver?". Arch delivers packages as close to upstream as possible. Breakage will depend on what software you use as well. As always, there is software that is more stable that others. Also which desktop environment you use will matter. Concerning pacman and dependency breakage, that almost never happens since a lot of packages go through the testing repo.

hatten · 2010-09-14 15:16:40

simon wrote:

I see from the wiki that "makepkg" can handle dependency resolution, so that seems like a significant advantage: does it build the dependencies from source or pull in binaries from the repositories? Can it be configured to do either? Most importantly, if I build a package from source (using the ABS) and then do a system upgrade that includes a newer version, how does pacman resolve this? Does it pull in a new source tarball and attempt to rebuild the package with my customizations, or does it simply wipe over my custom package with a new binary?

pacman never does anything without telling you first, either you can just keep an eye on the output whether one of your compiled packages is one to be updated, or you can set your manually compiled packages in pacman.conf and pacman will notify that these packages are out-of-date, though it won't update them. In short, nothing is done automatically, ever, unless you create scripts that do that. The user is the one in charge, he is the one to blame 90% of the breakages.

yejun · 2010-09-14 15:24:23

Gentoo is quite stable if you don't unmask packages and use fancy USE flags.

sand_man · 2010-09-14 23:16:21

Labello wrote:

sand_man wrote:
anonymous_user wrote:
Arch Linux also spoils you because it makes other distros and their repos feel old.
"Damn the repo only has Program version 3.1. Wheres 3.4?"
For this reason Arch Linux makes me hate my job.
why is that?

Because I can't use Arch at work (Except in this virtual machine)

simon · 2010-09-15 02:15:30

hatten wrote:

pacman never does anything without telling you first

Great, that's good to know.

Anonymo wrote:

Arch hardly has any breakage

That's really good to know too: I misread someone else's post in this thread as saying that regular breakage was a disadvantage of using Arch, so I was worried.

Anonymo wrote:

Your post seems awful demanding at the end. "can Arch deliver?"

I figure it would be "demanding" to install Arch and then ask, "why isn't Arch delivering what I want from it?", because that would suggest maybe Arch ought to do a better job of meeting my needs. On the other hand, to ask if it can deliver *before* installing is just to ask a question about whether it's likely to be the right distro for me. If it isn't, I don't see that as anything "wrong" with Arch nor anything that Arch has to take into account in any way whatsoever, so I don't get how it's "demanding", but I'm sorry if it sounded like it was.

I'm going to install it and spend a day setting it up: that ought to be long enough to get a feel for it, and if it doesn't work out, it's only one day wasted (and not really wasted, as I'll have gained some idea of what Arch is like). Just one more question (sorry, not really a "disadvantage of using Arch" comment, but I might as well ask it here since you were kind enough to answer my earlier questions about Arch): I see on the home page the announcement of "true multilib for Arch Linux x86_64". Does this mean I can do a "pure" 64-bit install, and trust that later on if I want to run WINE or whatever I can install it and its 32-bit dependencies seamlessly...or, is the "multilib" install what's listed on the downloads page as "dual architecture"?

Thanks.

cesura · 2010-09-15 02:57:04

simon wrote:

I see on the home page the announcement of "true multilib for Arch Linux x86_64". Does this mean I can do a "pure" 64-bit install, and trust that later on if I want to run WINE or whatever I can install it and its 32-bit dependencies seamlessly...or, is the "multilib" install what's listed on the downloads page as "dual architecture"?

Basically, the goal of multilib is to remove all packages from community that are not x86_64 native (ie, can compile on a 64-bit platform and run those compiled binaries on a 64-bit platform). Once you add a [multilib] line to /etc/pacman.conf, then you can "run WINE or whatever I can install it and its 32-bit dependencies seamlessly".

The dual architecture iso is actually nothing more than an installer and its packages on one single CD instead of two seperate ones.

Last edited by cesura (2010-09-15 02:57:46)

adamlau · 2010-09-19 11:01:27

My only gripe with Arch is the occasional broken system syndrome where things just don't work after a package, or a series of package upgrades. HAL then, CUPS now, who knows what else later...

myrlin · 2010-09-20 11:09:54

I've just replaced OpenSuSE with Arch on my EeePC netbook as a trial.

Absolutely no disadvantages as far as I'm concerned, only positives.

The desktop is next!

shak · 2010-09-21 09:18:48

Only disadvantage i can think off i that is too addictive

myrlin · 2010-09-21 13:26:56

I'd agree with that!

archman-cro · 2010-09-21 13:42:43

Me too, I can't find a disadvantage of Arch.

ilusi0n · 2010-09-25 20:29:42

shak wrote:

Only disadvantage i can think off i that is too addictive

Yes, I agree. And another disadvantaged I see on Arch at the moment is that never crashed on my laptop

archman-cro · 2010-09-26 07:17:31

ilusi0n wrote:

Yes, I agree. And another disadvantaged I see on Arch at the moment is that never crashed on my laptop

You'd like an occasional lockup and a full power off? ;D

ngoonee · 2010-09-26 09:09:27

archman-cro wrote:

ilusi0n wrote:
Yes, I agree. And another disadvantaged I see on Arch at the moment is that never crashed on my laptop
You'd like an occasional lockup and a full power off? ;D

Gives the man something to do rather than WORK all the time .

ilusi0n · 2010-09-28 16:37:17

ngoonee wrote:

archman-cro wrote:
ilusi0n wrote:
Yes, I agree. And another disadvantaged I see on Arch at the moment is that never crashed on my laptop
You'd like an occasional lockup and a full power off? ;D
Gives the man something to do rather than WORK all the time .

So true...

maxexcloo · 2010-10-01 09:23:25

The largest disadvantage/problem I've had was the recent kernel bug which crashed the entire computer when starting a virtual machine.

Texas · 2010-10-01 13:38:51

Nothing... it is perfect! Well, maybe not perfect... but it's close.

lilsirecho · 2010-10-01 16:35:51

Perhaps the biggest dis.. is that you don't get the BSOD that we all know and love!

anonymous_user · 2010-10-01 16:39:50

But wouldn't that apply to any Linux distro? Its not particular to Arch.

Last edited by anonymous_user (2010-10-01 16:40:03)

thestinger · 2010-10-01 19:18:30

I'm sure KDE is working on implementing a BSOD

capnmoney · 2010-10-01 20:20:50

lilsirecho wrote:

Perhaps the biggest dis.. is that you don't get the BSOD that we all know and love!

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=24810

advantage: Arch Linux

Last edited by capnmoney (2010-10-01 20:25:58)

ZekeSulastin · 2010-10-03 20:51:54

Having to go through and write new gmail filters so I can upgrade sans-breakage and sans-phone-email-notification-spam without drawing the ire of the entrenched masters of the irc channel who scoff if you dare complain about anything breaking.

Last edited by ZekeSulastin (2010-10-03 20:57:22)

TheCycoONE · 2010-10-05 14:18:28

A disadvantage or Arch is that there is only one version of most packages actively maintained, so if you want for example to stick with an older branch of a particular piece of software you might have a lot of work cut out for you. (As opposed to Gentoo which has versions and slots).

shak · 2010-10-05 17:24:30

The only thing i can think of is that since is bleeding edge sometimes packages can make the system unstable , but this has never happen to me so it's fine for me .

mhertz · 2010-10-06 09:58:49

First, again, please lets not call arch's philosophy of using newest stable releases for bleeding edge...

The downside of Arch imho, is that it's own strict rules isn't strictly obeyed and with that I mean that packages have patches applied that isn't critically needed!

Arch Linux

#101 2010-09-14 14:09:07

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#102 2010-09-14 15:16:40

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#103 2010-09-14 15:24:23

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#104 2010-09-14 23:16:21

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#105 2010-09-15 02:15:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#106 2010-09-15 02:57:04

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#107 2010-09-19 11:01:27

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#108 2010-09-20 11:09:54

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#109 2010-09-21 09:18:48

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#110 2010-09-21 13:26:56

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#111 2010-09-21 13:42:43

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#112 2010-09-25 20:29:42

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#113 2010-09-26 07:17:31

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#114 2010-09-26 09:09:27

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#115 2010-09-28 16:37:17

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#116 2010-10-01 09:23:25

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#117 2010-10-01 13:38:51

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#118 2010-10-01 16:35:51

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#119 2010-10-01 16:39:50

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#120 2010-10-01 19:18:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#121 2010-10-01 20:20:50

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#122 2010-10-03 20:51:54

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#123 2010-10-05 14:18:28

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#124 2010-10-05 17:24:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#125 2010-10-06 09:58:49

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

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