Arch Linux

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Debian

i found this thread a great eye-opener though, probably because the only other distro iv'e tried is vectorlinux which was complete sheit and frugalware which i think maybe would be better than arch if it had more users or maybe not, it was a long time since i tried it.

I think Frugalware's problem is twofold: rather inane package grouping and SystemV initscripts. Package groups like Gnome seem to be organized in a way that makes it more difficult to avoid installing unwanted components; the Base category has stuff in it that doesn't really belong, and stuff that ought to be on a functioning base system isn't in that category. As for the initscripts... I suppose SysV has its uses, but it looks like bloated crap to me.

In spite of that, though, Frugalware is a good distro - the support is excellent, bugs get fixed as fast as on Arch, software is mostly very up to date, and there are a lot of packages. I just wish there were more compatibility between the two distros.

ScriptDevil

Member

From: In Front of My PC

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 253

Re: Debian

I came to arch through a cycle of distros
1) Fedora -Yuck! First Distro always sucks
2) SuSe -my frst love, did not like it after sometime thanks to it being slow
3) Gentoo- was too immature for it
4) Ubuntu- Right Mix  Or was it. I liked it for a month, then thanks to 3 days with gentoo, my hand was itching for more work and newer packages
5) Undergrund -An archlinux+KDE+Ubuntu like installer  Loved it, but i hated the bloat called KDe
6)LFS -Never got it working
7) Mepis- Same reason as i quit ubuntu. Liked the hardware detection though
8) Debian - I never tried etch. Sarge was what i used. It was literally crawli9ng though on a P4-2.8 ghz with 512mbram
9)Crux- Cool, but the IRC folks were kinda unfriendly, but i liked it had i not corrupted the damn xorg thing, i reinstalling it.
10) ArchLinux -Home

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Be yourself, because you are all that you can be

TheGrudge

Member

Registered: 2006-06-15

Posts: 206

Website

Re: Debian

The big thing I like about arch opposed to debian is recursive package removal. it is very easy to remove say an entire gui in arch, where it is nearly inposible (to my knowledge) to do it in debian

I used to use debfoster for that, it is a VERY nice tool I'm missing in arch.
It creates a list of the packages you installed and asks you wether you want to keep the package or to remove it.
This is saved in a "keepers"-file and you will not be asked anymore. If you install a new app and decide after 2 days to remove it again, just fire up debfoster and it will ask you that you had installed "xxx" and if you want to remove it and all its dependencies that were installed.
Very nice.
So you can try out things, install thousands of packages and in the end you just call debfoster and remove them if you don't need them or save them in keepers so you will not be asked again.
Such a tool would be very nice in arch.

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ihavenoname

Member

Registered: 2006-01-09

Posts: 198

Re: Debian

The big thing I like about arch opposed to debian is recursive package removal. it is very easy to remove say an entire gui in arch, where it is nearly inposible (to my knowledge) to do it in debian

I used to use debfoster for that, it is a VERY nice tool I'm missing in arch.
It creates a list of the packages you installed and asks you wether you want to keep the package or to remove it.
This is saved in a "keepers"-file and you will not be asked anymore. If you install a new app and decide after 2 days to remove it again, just fire up debfoster and it will ask you that you had installed "xxx" and if you want to remove it and all its dependencies that were installed.
Very nice.
So you can try out things, install thousands of packages and in the end you just call debfoster and remove them if you don't need them or save them in keepers so you will not be asked again.
Such a tool would be very nice in arch.

I'm sure it's possible, Why not get the source code and try and edit it to work with the Arch packaging tools?

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In this land of the pain the sane lose not knowing they were part of the game.

~LP

battra

Member

From: Earth.US.Illinois.Chicago

Registered: 2006-05-12

Posts: 71

Re: Debian

The big thing I like about arch opposed to debian is recursive package removal. it is very easy to remove say an entire gui in arch, where it is nearly inposible (to my knowledge) to do it in debian

I used to use debfoster for that, it is a VERY nice tool I'm missing in arch.
It creates a list of the packages you installed and asks you wether you want to keep the package or to remove it.
This is saved in a "keepers"-file and you will not be asked anymore. If you install a new app and decide after 2 days to remove it again, just fire up debfoster and it will ask you that you had installed "xxx" and if you want to remove it and all its dependencies that were installed.
Very nice.
So you can try out things, install thousands of packages and in the end you just call debfoster and remove them if you don't need them or save them in keepers so you will not be asked again.
Such a tool would be very nice in arch.

I think debfoster is deprecated as of January 2006.  Debian users are supposed to migrate their debfoster data over to aptitude.

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"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."
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Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: Debian

I agree with everything Dusty said.

Damn, how could I miss a statement like that and not have an amazing smartass comment to make about it?

I'm sorry to let everyone down, I must be off my form.

Dusty

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** Arch Linux Apparel and more ** Arch Linux stickers, laptop bags, jewelery ** I wrote a book on Python 3 ** and one on mental health **

magnum_opus

Member

Registered: 2005-01-26

Posts: 132

Re: Debian

The big thing I like about arch opposed to debian is recursive package removal. it is very easy to remove say an entire gui in arch, where it is nearly inposible (to my knowledge) to do it in debian

I used to use debfoster for that, it is a VERY nice tool I'm missing in arch.
It creates a list of the packages you installed and asks you wether you want to keep the package or to remove it.
This is saved in a "keepers"-file and you will not be asked anymore. If you install a new app and decide after 2 days to remove it again, just fire up debfoster and it will ask you that you had installed "xxx" and if you want to remove it and all its dependencies that were installed.
Very nice.
So you can try out things, install thousands of packages and in the end you just call debfoster and remove them if you don't need them or save them in keepers so you will not be asked again.
Such a tool would be very nice in arch.

might not be too hard
/var/lib/pacman/local serves as a list of everything currently installed
so ls -1, incriment through that asking what to put in the keep file, then later ls -1 again, compare, ask again, anything you tell not to keep, strip *-#-# strip everything off after the * and send it to pacman -Rs

course might be a bitch

for a lame approximation you can always just ls -lt /var/lib/pacman/local and see what you've installed since what date.