Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

Nichollan · 2010-10-17 10:31:14

Its high reliance on fallible human beings.

Last edited by Nichollan (2010-10-17 10:31:24)

binskipy2u · 2010-10-27 04:44:12

I think arch is GREAT.... but when I've installed other distros on peoples computers with "less" then my arch knowledge, I would put ubuntu, with all the goodies.. etc.. but id use my knowledge of startup programs, adding or ! out deamons, host file entries, swappiness, etc.. to speed up and trim down ubuntu.. so its still a nice system, specially with 3 yrs support on desktop and stable (not that ive heard any problems, when people listen to the common sense instructions i give'em).. so using arch has no real disadvantages for me.. if arch were to "go away" for what ever reason, Id use what I've learned and use slack.. less bleeding edge but stable.. or for maximum compatibility for most needs, i'd use ubuntu personally..

Arch> slackware>Kubuntu>ubuntu>linux Mint>pclinuxos <<<--thats my line of "regression" if need be

blewisjr · 2010-10-27 12:15:56

Personally I only ever had one issue with arch in the past and that was when a kernel update broke my network chip. Not really arches fault tho it effected every distro using that particular kernel. Nothing that could not be fixed however with a manual module upgrade. I guess the disadvantage would be that arch is not newb friendly but then a gain they wiki warns ya.

hsan · 2010-10-30 12:14:01

I think Arch not being newbie friendly is actually an advantage. I don't like when a computer program treats me like it would be more clever than me. Even if it is the case, I still don't like it

The only thing I don't like is that library updates can produce a situation when I can not quickly install an application without upgrading the whole system first. With a slow internet connection this can mean waiting hours only to be able to view some file I just received in email.

vfbsilva · 2010-11-06 17:49:30

hsan wrote:

I think Arch not being newbie friendly is actually an advantage. I don't like when a computer program treats me like it would be more clever than me. Even if it is the case, I still don't like it
The only thing I don't like is that library updates can produce a situation when I can not quickly install an application without upgrading the whole system first. With a slow internet connection this can mean waiting hours only to be able to view some file I just received in email.

Imho arch is newbie friendly, dude it is simple to use oki it is not so "newbie friendly" as ubuntu with a graphical magic installer but compared to many other isntall I had like Slackware/gentoo/*bsd even borked debians it was damm easy to install and packages are also easy to install with aur. As we have not many config files things seems to be easy to mantain also rolling release is newbiefriendly as you don't have to deal with messed updates!

phildg · 2010-11-07 23:02:29

For me, the rolling release system is both a curse and a blessing.

It's a curse on my full fat desktop (XFCE + a plethora of packages ranging from being used everyday to being used once every 6 months). Come update time I typically had a multi 100MB download. So I don't use Arch for my desktop environment.

However, that same system really shines on my development VMs, where there is only a base install + libs and deps for the project being worked on. I haven't come across any disadvantage using Arch for this purpose - maybe I'm too easily satisfied?

idjut · 2010-11-11 21:11:17

Nichollan wrote:

Its high reliance on fallible human beings.

Haha, I agree on that one. It is a great distro and I wouldn't switch for another unless I have to. One thing is that shitty poulsbo graphic chipset that gave me nighmares trying to get a simple video running in even a small window, while it would run nicely in ubuntu or win7. I stuck with arch however and finally found a way to play video adequately through the wonderful community/wiki/forums here. That is all to arch's credit however, but it took time and it could be avoided.

And sometimes if you upgrade while the repos are updating you can get breakage, that's not fun either. It works out in the end however. And for that price you get a nice rolling distribution. I could never go to ubuntu or debian and install new systems every year. In the process I learn something about linux too.

idjut · 2010-11-11 21:18:12

If, God forbid, arch would magically disappear, then I might go for ubuntu or try to learn slackware. There are many interesting smaller ones, but I don't have much energy for ironing out errors so I like to stick with a stable bigger one. I rarely update arch, and when I do there might be some problems to fix, but then I'm settled for the next six months or so.

pickboy87 · 2010-11-11 23:02:35

The only disadvantage I've had from running Arch Linux is that my neck-beard is getting a little long.

imag1narynumber · 2010-11-12 03:14:29

I really have found a big disadvantage. When other things in life don't work as (near) flawlessly as my Arch install, they piss me off.

cirkit · 2010-11-12 03:54:58

I personally can't think of any disadvantages with Arch. Maybe it is just when a major update so happens to cause an issue on the system somehow, but this is very rare and not a difficult problem for me to dig up a solution on my Arch systems. I think the "rolling release" part of the distribution may seem "unstable" or "buggy" to others who haven't necessarily played with Arch since it truly is a bleeding edge distribution. For me personally, this is not the case. I love Arch for many reasons (probably because I am a BSD nerd), because as a power user I don't want a distribution to hold my hand and have things pre-configured. I want to do all that.

kcirick wrote:

Could anyone tell me the advantage of going with other distributions, or what Arch linux does poorly that others do well? Like I said, I'm very happy using Arch, and I don't want to go with other distributions only "for a change".

If you try other distributions, you will be familiar with the way that distribution does things, and could possibly see the differences between Arch and said distro more clearly. I would advise you not to go with other distributions only "for a change", unless you absolutely want to explore how other distributions work. But even then, you can install a distro you wish to experiment with in a VM while you run Arch natively.

Daethorian · 2010-11-12 12:11:36

The biggest disadvantage for me is that Arch fits my computing style so perfectly that it broods some kind of cuddly elitism. I enjoy it so much that I am almost becoming that annoying dude that tries to get everyone to convert to his thing.

While I try to avoid that, whenever someone asks me to help them install Linux, I would give them Arch instead of Ubuntu (or any other newbie friendly distro) because I know that they will invariably at some point get a problem that they need my help to solve. If I would've given them any other distro, I would quickly fall into "Distro X sucks and is broken and I don't have time to get engaged enough to solve it". But, if the distro would be Arch, I would walk through hell and high water to solve the problem and make sure that Arch is as awesome in their eyes as it is in mine.

SanskritFritz · 2010-11-12 12:18:29

Daethorian wrote:

The biggest disadvantage for me is that Arch fits my computing style so perfectly that it broods some kind of cuddly elitism. I enjoy it so much that I am almost becoming that annoying dude that tries to get everyone to convert to his thing.
While I try to avoid that, whenever someone asks me to help them install Linux, I would give them Arch instead of Ubuntu (or any other newbie friendly distro) because I know that they will invariably at some point get a problem that they need my help to solve. If I would've given them any other distro, I would quickly fall into "Distro X sucks and is broken and I don't have time to get engaged enough to solve it". But, if the distro would be Arch, I would walk through hell and high water to solve the problem and make sure that Arch is as awesome in their eyes as it is in mine.

Heh, QFT, ditto here

TheStatsMan · 2010-11-20 09:19:30

Arch makes me find my Kubuntu setup at work annoying. No longer having to deal with the six monthly breakage is definitely a plus and I find Kubuntu to be really buggy at the best of times, the odd little hiccup is so much easier to deal with. The documentation on Arch is so much better and the AUR is great, I rarely need to go onto the internet to download source and manually compile. The forums provide concise accurate answers. The lack of bloat, gcc upgraded so shortly after a new release. It is whatever I want it to be. I really find no reason to use any other distro now. My systems just seem so happy now. Between the documentation and the massive repositories it seems a lot easier to to many things now. KDE is awesome on Arch.

CountDuckula · 2010-11-24 06:51:30

TheStatsMan wrote:

Arch makes me find my Kubuntu setup at work annoying. No longer having to deal with the six monthly breakage is definitely a plus ...

Well if Ubuntu goes rolling release as per rumour then the Kubuntu's biannual breakage will be but a distant memory

Misfit138 · 2010-11-26 16:43:03

You know, I use Arch on all my machines. Wife and kids too.
In the past 2 years I can recall 0 headaches across half a dozen machines...though 3 years ago a kernel update broke something for me which was fixed in a day or 2, iirc.
Been using Arch since 2006 and have never had a showstopper installing it on any machine, and it rolls about as smooth as silk for me.

No disadvantages to report thusfar.

fsckd · 2010-11-28 08:21:34

Installed Arch on your wife and kids, you say?

ngoonee · 2010-11-28 15:45:13

fsckd wrote:

Installed Arch on your wife and kids, you say?

Disturbing. Bet daily upgrades are a real hassle.

Xyne · 2010-11-28 20:03:24

ngoonee wrote:

fsckd wrote:
Installed Arch on your wife and kids, you say?
Disturbing. Bet daily upgrades are a real hassle.

It's even more disturbing when Allan breaks his wife.

Runiq · 2010-11-28 20:09:26

Xyne wrote:

ngoonee wrote:
fsckd wrote:
Installed Arch on your wife and kids, you say?
Disturbing. Bet daily upgrades are a real hassle.
It's even more disturbing when Allan breaks his wife.

You didn't just go there.

naguz · 2010-11-28 20:09:39

Arch on family members computers is really no trouble. As long as they live in the same house as you. You update their system every Saturday, and check for major breakage, anything still not working they will detect themselvs during the weekend.

I would *never* install arch on a family members computer which I had no direct access to, however. If something like a kernel upgrade should go to hell/make a vide adapter not run anymore etc... So my mom happily enjoys Ubuntu on her laptop. No blue screens (a daily occurence with Vista right out of the box), and much harder for the little sisters who constantly use it without permission to infect it with crapware or destroy something.

They DID manage to delete the whole goddamn /home partition once though, I'm still at a loss as to how that was accomplished. oO Luckilly ista is still there as a bott option, so it could be used until I was home again.

But to the toipic:
The biggest, mahor hassle with archlinux is NO THIRD PARTY SUPORT.
- Adobe Air: Forget about it. (sdk hak is not a working option except for testing some apps.
- Java plgins looking for something somewhere arch doesn't put it might need debugging,
- Several peojects are *buntu er .deb only
- Software/scripts built against older package versions, and incompatible with the version in arch's repo. (Such as the change to python3)

Most of this is the price of rolling-release though, and it is worth it.

However, I really envy Ubuntu users their Adobe Air with Voddler, and I envy them their bugtracking system where any chump can just post a bug and not worry what actually causes it.

Allan · 2010-11-29 00:22:12

Runiq wrote:

Xyne wrote:
ngoonee wrote:
Disturbing. Bet daily upgrades are a real hassle.
It's even more disturbing when Allan breaks his wife.
You didn't just go there.

whaevr · 2010-11-29 11:26:36

^laughed at that for a good minute lmao
Lack of sleep may have had something to contribute to it though..

Gonna have to say since I install arch how I want it the first time and have everything setup when I start using the computer daily its already how I want it...I either tinker with things and (possibly) break them or look for things to install just for the sake of searching for something new to put on my comp..

Its like damn...now I just USE the computer & its working fine and fast...what the hell....

Mr Green · 2010-12-01 13:27:10

None! Using Ubuntu how long have you got?

iggyst00ge · 2010-12-01 14:21:55

Gbak wrote:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FAQ … se_Arch.3F
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … tributions

I never get tired of reading the Arch vs. other distributions section of the Wiki. It's part of what brought me here in the first place.

There's no distro bashing, just a matter of fact description of what the strengths are of other distributions and OSs that might fit better depending on your needs.

My Arch installs tend to require more tinkering and maintenance than a vanilla Debian stable release, so if I have a machine I'm keeping up for someone else, I usually err on the side of caution and go with Debian stable, which makes stability a priority over everything else. Also Synaptic is nice for people who don't want to drop to the command line.

Otherwise, it's all Arch.

Arch Linux

#126 2010-10-17 10:31:14

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#127 2010-10-27 04:44:12

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#128 2010-10-27 12:15:56

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#129 2010-10-30 12:14:01

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#130 2010-11-06 17:49:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#131 2010-11-07 23:02:29

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#132 2010-11-11 21:11:17

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#133 2010-11-11 21:18:12

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#134 2010-11-11 23:02:35

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#135 2010-11-12 03:14:29

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#136 2010-11-12 03:54:58

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#137 2010-11-12 12:11:36

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#138 2010-11-12 12:18:29

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#139 2010-11-20 09:19:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#140 2010-11-24 06:51:30

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#141 2010-11-26 16:43:03

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#142 2010-11-28 08:21:34

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#143 2010-11-28 15:45:13

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#144 2010-11-28 20:03:24

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#145 2010-11-28 20:09:26

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#146 2010-11-28 20:09:39

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#147 2010-11-29 00:22:12

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#148 2010-11-29 11:26:36

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#149 2010-12-01 13:27:10

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

#150 2010-12-01 14:21:55

Re: Disadvantage of using Arch Linux?

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