The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

jasonwryan · 2009-07-18 03:47:00

For a balance between configurability, speed and package availability, Arch is definitely one of the best. For elegance, it leaves the others in the dust...

knopper92 · 2009-07-23 18:24:50

I just started using arch. It really does rule!!

Pacman is awesome too!! Shit-fast package installations FTW.

celtic426 · 2009-07-26 16:17:23

Arch is perfect for me! I have my system all set up very nicely. Using gnome. Much faster than ubuntu.

The main things I use my system for are: firefox, Netbeans IDE (works flawlessly), as well as Virtualbox. Very happy with it!

akephalos · 2009-08-06 06:43:54

celtic426 wrote:

The main things I use my system for are: firefox, Netbeans IDE (works flawlessly), as well as Virtualbox. Very happy with it!

My Arch QEmu installation was the first I could set-up to have full speed. Now I can get rid of Virtualbox.

jelly · 2009-08-06 06:46:52

KVM rocks , it's really simple , less deps then virtualbox and it works fine

jmdennis · 2009-08-10 20:57:23

I have hopped around to different Linux distributions over the years. I even used Chakra as I did not like going through the setup process to use Arch. It is not hard but just time consuming. I stopped using this for a while as the video on my motherboard was not well supported and when xserver 1.6 came out this bite me and I could not use my PC any longer. I could have probably waited for a fix but I did some more hopping. I also have problems with KDE 4.2 as it kept having plasma errors but that was a KDE issue and was easy enough to work around. I built a newer PC and came back to Arch and will not be switching any more. I still have some issues with applications quitting but I know the problem is with the applications and not Arch. I am staying with them as I like to get updates almost as soon as they are released. I am quite impressed with how much has changed since I last used it and will be staying this time.

pany · 2009-08-11 17:05:00

With Ubuntu you can set your grandmother free from windows and doors, in a day.....
With Arch you can transform her into a geek and greatly improve her memory, within... a few days.
But maybe this is just an unlucky metaphor.

To me Arch gives you the ability to end up with maybe the "cleanest" OS out there, with the least of effort. Arch is much more than simple. It's '"clean". There goes all my appreciation.

Keep it up........
'Cause it's running.......fast........and......clean.........

akurashy · 2009-08-15 18:26:49

Arch is the best teaching distro, ever. What do I mean? Wiki is concise, clean. Pacman is too awesome, the boot for me is faster than any other distro.

I've been a linux supporter for years, started with ubuntu back in 2004 and ran it for quite a while. Then hopped to openSUSE, kubuntu, ZenWalk (I liked it at first.. but since it was starting it was quite... a mess when installing packages, too many illegal instructions), redhat, can't recall any other. I didn't hop much anyway.

And to be honest, joining arch made me realize that even with a GUI there was still tons to learn. So yea, I've learned with arch more than I've ever had with ubuntu (burn their wiki, please) and any other distro.

The day I leave Arch, it'll be the hardest one giving up on such a simple and minimalistic distro.

timm · 2009-09-04 17:46:21

I have an older machine that has been running as my office fileserver since 2002. I used redhat on it then, as it was what was recommended, and used that for a couple years until they killed that distro and went to fedora. I transferred to arch on it until I took it offline a couple weeks ago.

I decided I'd put fedora on it to sell it, as more people appear to be familiar with that. Now, not to say I haven't had my share of problems installing arch on machines over the years, but, aaaaggggghhhhhh! An attempted install of Fedora 11 ended up with a current Arch install. The fedora graphic installer (default) took forever to come up on the machine; it was so slow I rebooted once just thinking the darn thing had hung somehow. Then it complained about my old serverworks hardware, then it complained about something else, and then it got rebooted and the Arch installer CD made its way into the tray. Again, it runs fine.

toasty_ghosty · 2009-09-07 06:40:00

I have used many distros out there. Never quite happy. After getting Arch working on my Thinkpad I relized how much room other distros have for improvement.

If any distro is raising the bar, its Arch.

-Ghosty

syn · 2009-09-08 03:56:46

DeniZen wrote:

Pacman is a real rival to Apt - possibly even better.

DeniZen wrote:

possibly even better.

DeniZen wrote:

possibly

OH, YOU.

Janarto · 2009-09-10 21:06:38

i tried to install arch in feb 2008 but i messed up so i gave up for sometimes
i'm a macintosh user since the classic but when i started looking at free oses, i also tried pc bsd witch was very easy but rather limited as a desktop.
then i tried ubuntu for a while but i wasn't very happy with the performances, the responsiveness and overall feeling so i came back to leopard.
Then with 2009.8 i tried arch again, it's was hard at the beginning but a pleasure to learn, and i just have to say : it's the better os i ever used.

some of the reasons are :

- you have to learn how the systems works, and that can be a pain to start with but it's brilliant in the end
- it's very very nimble (i use xfce 4 because i'm not used to more minimalist wm for the moment)
- it's really stable (and i was quite amazed because the package in core and extra are certainly the most up to date of any linux system i found, maybe except sidux)
- i have to thank you for the quality of the wiki and the forum which is really useful to beginners
- all my needed software are accessible thru the main repositories and i don't have looked at AUR yet !

so officially, to me, arch is best
i will eventualy try to learn about lfs if i'm brave enought, in order to go on learning

chender · 2009-09-11 04:07:19

Two key areas Arch excels are the wiki, and Pacman. While I had my challenges, I have been able to migrate from xfce when I began with Arch in July (Ubuntu before), through to lxde which is fast and lean, now to Xmonad. Xmonad took me a while to sort out over a 2 week period, but now I have it running with dmenu and my Thinkpad X60s just soars.

What I have noticed with Arch is that I now have a much clearer understanding of my filesystem and what goes where.

History:

Windows ... to 2007
Ubuntu 2007 - 2009
Arch 2009

Main apps:
firefox
Go-office (improved openoffice)
zim (desktop wiki for notes)
jungledisk (S3) (backup)
lxrandr (external monitor control)
lxterminal (fast but functional terminal)
pcmanfm (super fast file manager)
rdesktop (remote access to our banking app on Win 2000)
git (our application - I only get to edit text)
wicd (rock solid network management)
DE: x windows and Xmonad (50MB footprint)

Anonymo · 2009-09-11 15:55:49

he he
I started something:
http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/39475#comment-11286

ninjaprawn · 2009-09-11 22:52:42

i just love arch!! no other distro comes close. But i need 2 try a version of slack and gentoo at sum point!!

after runnin arch 4 nearly 2 years, i got bored n tried fedora 11. only lasted a day!! came straight back 2 arch, but just set it up completely different 2 the last setup!! i was running compiz-fusion as a standalone wm on my moniter with ob on my tv, but htis time round gone with kde4 on my moniter and ob on the tv again! for ease of setup, install and usability, kde is amazing!!! just a lil heavy wit only 512mb ram n a 1.8GHz celeron!! but still faster than any other disto i have tried with any other software combination!!

Anonymo · 2009-09-13 21:59:18

One more person that thinks Arch is best:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1451509

minhso · 2009-09-14 08:01:31

I just moved to Arch, been around with Slackware for 6 months. Slack was great for learning, but after some time I began to think of using Linux more seriously, something small, simple, stable, easy to config and runs fast.

I originally wanted to do Zenwalk first, as it's based on Slack, and I liked the name better (silly me, I know ), but then one day Arch release a new Live CD - August 2009, I thought "oh, what the hell..."

Then I realized that Arch also has eyecandy, and is very very up to date ( I didnt know the term "rolling release" before).

Now my Arch is really working exactly the way I want it, I can't help but keep staring at the screen every 15 minutes ^___^

Thank you, Arch team.

PS : some tasks I failed in Slackware (due to my clumsiness of course) : Wireless, Wicd, xvnkb, kde4, launchy, power managerment, function keys, virtualbox,...

Last edited by minhso (2009-09-14 08:07:14)

Anonymo · 2009-09-14 13:38:04

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue … 14#feature

q1jack · 2009-09-20 11:34:39

I converted to Ubuntu around a month ago (was a winblows user up until then), Yet I could not help but feel it was "the vista of linux distro's" if you will, So i decided to give Arch a try, (without the amazing beginners wiki this would never have been possible) And i really could not be more pleased with my current setup, Despite me still severely lacking knowledge, I'm eager to learn and I dont think there is a better learning platform for me than Arch. Fluxbox + pcmanfm is blisteringly fast on my average system (e6600, 4gb ocz gold, 8800gt, F1 1tb). Enough with my blabbering, Arch is the perfect distro for my personal needs without a shadow of doubt. I think the guys who sorted out the wiki page deserve to be knighted! I can confidently say i will be staying with Arch on my desktop until i no longer use a desktop computer. (:

Last edited by q1jack (2009-09-20 11:35:34)

blackrain · 2009-09-20 13:35:07

q1jack wrote:

on my average system (e6600, 4gb ocz gold, 8800gt, F1 1tb)

Yeah, quite average

q1jack · 2009-09-20 19:21:50

blackrain wrote:

q1jack wrote:
on my average system (e6600, 4gb ocz gold, 8800gt, F1 1tb)
Yeah, quite average

heh, I used to game a lot hence the need for some beefy hw, But the system is actually quite old now, still runs fast enough for me As i was saying to a freind earlier, I've never had my computer running as fast as it does now im with Arch+Fluxbox

mjheagle8 · 2009-10-04 16:05:30

arch is the best because last night, my huge updates download averaged ~2mb/s, and peaked at 7.9 mb/s.
ridiculously awesome.

Vamp898 · 2009-10-08 03:00:38

im_ka wrote:

cactus wrote:
I dont know if any distro can be the "ultimate distro". I certainly like arch, otherwise I wouldn't be here..using it.
But I think saying it solves all problems for all people (which is implied by the word "ultimate"), is being a bit disengenuous..
i don't say that. i say that it solves my problems. lightweight, customizable, and not that hard to configure.
i've used debian and co extensively, and pacman beats apt-get imho. eg. recursive removal of packages

And Portage beats Pacman in every way^^

Just beceause Debian is bad that does not mean that Arch is ultimate

But for Desktops Arch is still my first use. KISS is just ...... KISS

You have a simple lightweight system and all works with recent software.

bobland · 2009-10-10 19:35:13

I came from the Ubuntu world. After 3 years with it I got frustrated as updates kept breaking things. I used Firefox 3.0+ and 3.5. Both would not open or close without coaxing. OpenOffice took forever to do anything. Many programs required reinstalling numerous times. It began to feel like Windows again.

There are a number of Arch fan boys at Ubuntuforums. That's where I found out about Arch. I decided to try it and here I am.

My sister expressed some interest in linux so I began hunting for a distro for the impossibly confused. I decided to send her Linux Mint since it was a very easy install and everything seemed to work out of the box.

I liked it so much that I toyed with the idea of switching to it. That idea came to an abrupt end when I updated it. I was supposed to download 183 files but at a max 30k? I kept aborting the download. That ended up crashing the system so it now sits along side of Ubuntu in the dead OS yard.

I like trying out distros, seeing what works and what doesn't. In the end, I think they all will do something usefull. The beauty of linux is the customization. Now, if we could do this with our genes...

Burt

Runiq · 2009-10-10 19:40:37

bobland wrote:

Now, if we could do this with our genes...
Burt

Well… We could. It's pretty easy, actually. The problem is finding the combinations that don't kill you outright.

Arch Linux

#326 2009-07-18 03:47:00

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#327 2009-07-23 18:24:50

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#328 2009-07-26 16:17:23

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#329 2009-08-06 06:43:54

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#330 2009-08-06 06:46:52

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#331 2009-08-10 20:57:23

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#332 2009-08-11 17:05:00

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#333 2009-08-15 18:26:49

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#334 2009-09-04 17:46:21

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#335 2009-09-07 06:40:00

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#336 2009-09-08 03:56:46

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#337 2009-09-10 21:06:38

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#338 2009-09-11 04:07:19

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#339 2009-09-11 15:55:49

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#340 2009-09-11 22:52:42

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#341 2009-09-13 21:59:18

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#342 2009-09-14 08:01:31

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#343 2009-09-14 13:38:04

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#344 2009-09-20 11:34:39

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#345 2009-09-20 13:35:07

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#346 2009-09-20 19:21:50

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#347 2009-10-04 16:05:30

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#348 2009-10-08 03:00:38

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#349 2009-10-10 19:35:13

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#350 2009-10-10 19:40:37

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

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