The Official Hello Everyone Thread

masolski · 2016-06-07 18:17:21

Actually I'm still using FreeBSD. I've build home cloud/storage server couple of years ago and still love it. I know it very well (not a developer of course but power user) but now I needed something for my laptop.

FreeBSD is useless on modern laptops. Arch gives mi similar lightness, bit of a chalenge and same level of pleasure while supporting all of my hardware. I found systemd and pacman most exiting components. I should mentioned that I've tried quite many of Linux distros available.

Arch is the one

Marcin

HypicSnoph · 2016-06-08 00:08:42

Thanks Trilby - I'm looking forward to the challenge. I've been googling this, that and the other while setting up Arch. It's coming along and I'm enjoying the process

My sentiments exactly TexBrew, I jumped in for the challenge - and it definitely is one - and I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Last edited by HypicSnoph (2016-06-08 00:09:03)

crashaku · 2016-06-08 16:19:24

Hi all. New here. Actually been using Arch for quite some time now. Just finally decided to join the forum.

slobeck · 2016-06-10 23:08:24

Hey, all. Was flippin through, super interested in Arch having felt like my "starter-marriage" to Kubuntu has run it's course.

I'm just entering my second year with Linux after 20+ years with some fruit flavored company's proprietary horror-show -oops I meant "operating system"- that rhymes with but is less tasty than Snapple. Ever since I got my first C-64 in 1984 or 5, i was always wanting to build my own machine but for some dumb assed reason I was dazzled by "The Steve" and his pretty pretty "computers" for many, many moons and never did.

And then the great and shiny company who, like Voldemort or Beetlejuice shall not be named; screwed me. (Not a long story, but it belongs in a torches and pitchforks thread)

So I took an old Dell Vostro that someone gave me in payment for a $5 debt to use in leiu of the now bricked $2000 iMac. All I can say is: rootkits, malware, spyware... windoze...(at least it was 7). So rather than trying to fix Windows (HAHAHAHAHAHA) - I said, "F-it". (as you do) And decided to try Linux. Well, like a geeky teen to a WonderCon booth-babe, I went straight into the <sarcasm>"Circle of Friends", Ubuntu</sarcasm>.. Something about a brightly colored primate. Are Vervets prone to vividness? - I digress.

Anyway. You can probably guess from my enthusiasm-face :-| what I thought of Unity. Google, youtube, google, phoronix, LAS later and I thought I'd give this KDE-thingie a try and move a baby-step up into Kubuntu. Much geeky late night fun ensued. Then I blew half my food money for the month on a motherboard, a decent CPU etc... to go with a ATI R9 card that I already had.

Then I was just cruising along one-day, minding my own business, and "WHOOPS!" I fell down the Linux rabbit hole and found myself saying things like "It's like computers are fun again! Like they were when I was 12."

Then someone broke the first rule of Gentoo and told me about Gentoo. I came, I looked. Yeah, screw that. For now. Arch with the latest Plasma 5.x desktop from the fine men and women of KDE - are what i want phase two of my foray into Linux-land to be made of. I have grown frighteningly fond of that DE - I fear it's dangerously close to fanboi-ism)

Soooo. thanks for being you. Stay geeky but don't stay strangers!
Slobeck
Sun Tanpsycho, CA

Last edited by slobeck (2016-06-10 23:31:11)

Texbrew · 2016-06-11 22:37:59

Well now, that was a fun-to-read introduction.

Welcome to Arch Club. I think it's OK to talk about Arch Club if you have a linux savvy circle of friends.

Alas, in my circle, most people don't want to talk about computers, much less linux.

Isn't it nice to know you don't have to be chained to a commercially sold operating system? Isn't that wonderful? Truth be told, using Arch Linux makes me feel smarter than I really am...

Congratulations on your transition to Arch Linux in, I think you said, your second year of using linux. For me it was about 5 years of using distros that are much easier to install. Arch seemed to be a huge challenge, but eventually curiosity won over fear. I "cheated" and installed Arch in VirtualBox.

Now in my second year of using Arch, I have it on "bare metal" on two old laptops and an old PC (all my machines are old). On one of the Arch laptops, I have "flipped the pancake" as it were, by installing my old favorite distro in VirtualBox. There are a few favorite games in the other distro with the Gnome desktop, but I prefer openbox desktop in my Arch installs. That may not make any sense, but it was a fun exercise for me.

Have fun with your Arch experience!

tex

ewaller · 2016-06-11 22:49:58

slobeck wrote:

Well, like a geeky teen to a WonderCon booth-babe, I went straight ...

Then someone broke the first rule of Gentoo and told me about Gentoo.

As a transplant from said penultimate distribution, I had no idea that was a rule

smitty1e · 2016-06-11 23:56:48

Hello, Arch
I'm a fairly seasoned Linux user.
Windows 10 Update was such a disaster that I finally installed Arch on my system, with intent to use VirtualBox to run Windows and other Linux images.
In particular, I like to run Exherbo, but I really admire the polish and quality of the Arch system for the OS base.

Texbrew · 2016-06-12 04:21:57

Welcome. I think you will have fun with Arch and VirtualBox. That may be the best way to run Windows nowadays
(though I don't use Windows anymore, I still maintain it for SWMBO and a neighbor).

tex

Neimad87 · 2016-06-12 17:24:23

My history is a bit simple... All starts with a transition from an old Amstrad CPC to a Pentium PC with Windows 95. After some many years, system updates and reinstalations... I started my professional studies. Linux was a requirement, so from that date I use a dual boot Windows/Linux like many others.

At first, my main OS was Windows and using Linux from some specific things. Then, for periods my main OS changed but when finalized my studies Linux was always my automatic boot option and only use Windows sometimes for some games.

Distros that I tried? A lot of them... the first was a Mandrake and then a Red Hat just before the transition to the first Fedora. I have used Ubuntu a lot of years, leaving it for try some others but always returning again to Ubuntu... until Unity. OMG, f-ing Unity. So I moved to Mint (yeah! another "Ubuntu", but a better Ubuntu) with his Cinnamon.

Parallel, the faculty's computers start running Gnome 3. Yeah, everybody hate's Gnome 3, but I tried it and I execute all my daily actions quicklyest. The fists versions was horrible, I know, and a lot slower than Gnome 2, but I love it.

So... when Mint declares the war to Gnome 3 and was impossible to install it, I must migrate again to Ubuntu. That was again that time that I was thinking to trying another distros, trying to found the perfection to me. Arch was in my mind; people always saying the quick that it was, but I was afraid about the huge manual configuration that it requires. So when Ubuntu launch a release with a huge and lot of errors (f-ing unicorns) and without any package upgrade (same versions of all but with more errors! great!), one friend starts talking me about the glorious "rolling release" distros. Arch was one? Ok, finally let's go Arch. But....

OK, you catch me... a guy using a lot of times Ubuntu that loves the automatic install and configuration of things.... I'm not using a pure-Arch (FIRE!! FIRE WHIT IT!). I'm using a distro that adds some sort of things only: easy install setup, a util for easy configuration of "drivers" (graphics cards... ajem...) and other things that I don't use (for example, the package manager that caused me some troubles in the past, so I use Pacman command-line always).

It's the second year using that. A bit manual setup at first and all things run perfectly. No rare errors Ubuntu/Windows-like (if it was one, was my fault). All latest versions. I'm impressed about the huge docs and community, specially this forums and the all-knowing mandatory wiki (want to install something new? FIRST GO ARCH.WIKI!).

Thanks guys for all that errors you solve me!

Last edited by Neimad87 (2016-06-12 17:27:40)

Texbrew · 2016-06-13 02:56:54

Welcome Neimad87, I hope you enjoy using Arch.

I too, was accustomed to distros which make installation fairly simple. They always included software I don't use and don't need - "bloat". All free, of course, and that's nice. To be fair, I think the leading linux distros try to to include software that most people want.

Arch Linux is a bit more challenging to install, but we get to pick the software we want and leave out the stuff we don't want or need. I know it runs very well on an old, low spec PC, and very well on a couple of 5-6 year old laptops I use.

In my experience, Arch starts up much faster than any other linux distro I have used.

You are right about the Arch Wiki. It's a gold mine.

tex

matthew_TKA · 2016-06-13 14:45:42

Hello everyone!

My family's first computer was an Apple IIc I remember playing a few games on it, but the first computer I had some influence purchasing was an HP with a 3dfx Voodoo video card. I was hooked on graphics technology and games back then.

I am now a software architect and have worked on everything from indie to AAA games for PC and Consoles (GBA, DS, Playstation 3, Xbox 360), embedded hardware and drivers, raspberry pi, arduino, and applications/games for the majority of OSs such as Windows 98 - 10, Mac OSX, Linux flavors, android and iOS. Most recently I have been working on server side and native web (HTML5) based technologies.

I started software engineering on Windows with Visual Studio being the primary IDE of choice. My Macbook Pro 2011 (Swapped out the HDD for SSD and maxed out the Ram at 16GB) was my gateway drug into the Unix world where I first dual booted Windows 7 and OS X. I soon realized how much I loved Unix vs the Windows option and started only running Windows in a VirtualBox VM. Today I rarely use Windows at all unless my employer has a client that requires it.

When my trusty Macbook finally passed away (I never had to reformat that thing and rarely had any issues until the mobo finally crapped out recently several years later with constant use) I decided I wanted to buy a new one. I noticed there were no Macbooks on the market yet with Skylake processors so I figured I could either wait or see if the "Windows market" had any decent machines that didn't weigh 100lb and take up more space then a 1970 mainframe and hopefully wasn't built with cheap plastic. I found two options that seemed reasonable for my needs the Razer Blade and the MSI GS40. The Razer blade had a new model coming out roughly the same time as the Macbook pro and with a price tag similar to what I would expect the Macbook to have so this was pretty much a non-starter for me. I finally settled on the 14" MSI GS40 and was still able to max out the ram at 32GB replace the 7200 drive with an SSD and even upgrade the Nvme drive for a price below both the Blade and the Macbook. It was at this point I had decided to break the Mac vendor lock and go all in on open source.

Windows came preloaded and boy was it unresponsive and filled with bloatware and "virus protection" (I have absolutely never needed virus or spyware protection on unix systems. In fact the dev shops I have worked on that rely on Unix systems vs Windows didn't require a dedicated IT department unlike the Windows shops). I created a heafty (20GB+!!!) factory OS backup CD in the off chance I wanted to install the factory default OS, then promptly started my search for a linux distro.

I finally settled on Arch for its complete customizability and bleeding edge nature of the rolling release. I'm tempted by Mint as a backup choice as I have had to battle several issues thus far getting my system up and running on Arch so far, but I definitely like the results I have now so long as I can fix the remaining issues with my hybrid graphics. It definitely seems like the tedium of install with Arch builds a more informed community so I do appreciate that for sure.

I do want to give a big shout out to the wiki contributors and users of the Arch forum.

THIS COMMUNITY ROCKS!!!

P.S. I'm not trying to completely bash Windows and/or any other technology as they all have their merits and I still use em on occasion. I'm just pointing out the experiences I have had and issues that have influenced my decisions along the way. Your mileage may vary.

drcouzelis · 2016-06-13 14:59:02

Welcome.

Neimad87 wrote:

I'm not using a pure-Arch (FIRE!! FIRE WHIT IT!). I'm using a distro that adds some sort of things

There isn't a "pure Arch Linux". It's just Arch Linux. You aren't using Arch Linux.

Texbrew · 2016-06-14 15:01:30

@matthew_TKA,

Greetings, fellow Texan!

I am not by any means the Official Greeter on the Official Hello Everyone Thread.

Forum Admins may even wish I posted greetings and welcome messages far less often. That said, it's nice to see another new Arch user from "God's Country".

I don't know if you aimed to impress with your brief description of your background with computers, but I'm impressed, and I'm glad you have joined the forum.

tex

matthew_TKA · 2016-06-15 03:24:07

Thanks @Texbrew! I noticed your FROM line as well . What a small world.

I figured it was relevant info on my background and how I came to be an Arch user. I'm really happy with Arch thus far and excited to install on several more systems of mine including an old compaq laptop, my old hp convertible laptop/tablet, my old Zotac set top, and a few Raspberry Pis I've wanted to repurpose (not to mention loads of old PCs I have collected over the years). I expect each install to be unique to some degree given the various hardware differences.

I did figure out a solution for my hybrid graphics woes that works rather well for now until the card is supported with the standard install.

I have also kept some pretty detailed notes on my install process and plan on posting a tutorial on the Install forum shortly. I would like it to eventually land in the MSI laptop wiki page for the GS40 if/when I eventually have wiki access.

I'm really excited to be a part of this community now and I hope to give something back while I continue to learn more.

runical · 2016-06-15 09:00:00

Hey Matthew, welcome to the forums. I hope you'll enjoy using Arch as much as I do!

matthew_TKA wrote:

I have also kept some pretty detailed notes on my install process and plan on posting a tutorial on the Install forum shortly.

Please don't do this. The forums are meant for troubleshooting (and idle chatting in the off topic sections), not for tutorials. If you post one, chances are it will be removed by the mods. The wiki or a blog is a better place for tutorials.
Mind you, I'm not trying to discourage you from contributing, just trying to prevent you from being discouraged when your hard work is removed due to being in the wrong place.

As for wiki access, you might want to take a look here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=212837

Last edited by runical (2016-06-15 09:03:08)

matthew_TKA · 2016-06-15 13:03:28

@runical THANKS!

Actually the Forum Tutorial idea was simply a work around for the fact that wiki access was limited at this point. I had run across the post you linked before, but it isn't exactly the most obvious place to look for that so I couldn't recall where I found it. I'll try that.

Doesn't seem like the wiki signup revocation is a very "temp" situation at this point so maybe someone should put this in the News or Wiki page (possibly the all powerful Beginner's guide)? Would be nice to inform newcomers at least until that situation is resolved.

There is loads of great information in the wiki, but I have already run into outdated info here and there and without access it isn't easy to suggest a fix.

Thanks again!

EDIT:

DOH!... I didn't notice it on the front of the Wiki page LOL

Last edited by matthew_TKA (2016-06-15 14:54:07)

runical · 2016-06-15 14:23:06

It's on the front page of the wiki already

But hey, if you want access, just mail one of the admins. They'll be more than happy to help. I just hope that the anti-spam measures will be in place soon.

watty88 · 2016-06-19 01:21:04

Hi People!

matthew_TKA · 2016-06-19 01:47:56

Short and sweet eh @watty88?

Welcome aboard!!

mastersarg61 · 2016-06-19 01:53:27

Hello to all. I've been trying out different distros for several years now, and decided to replace Win 8.1 with Arch on my eight year old HP desktop. Working great on an Athlon 64 X2 dual core with 4 GB ram (3 usable).

cmd · 2016-06-19 10:53:25

Hello everyone!,

Hi was using Ubuntu 14.04. I was prompted now and then to update to 14.10, so i wanted to shift to a different distro. Then found arch and its rolling releases. I loved the way it is installed. It took me about 3 hrs to install it. But that's when i got an alarm that arch will force to me to dig into my system every now and then.

Texbrew · 2016-06-19 23:39:47

mastersarg61 wrote:

Hello to all. I've been trying out different distros for several years now, and decided to replace Win 8.1 with Arch on my eight year old HP desktop. Working great on an Athlon 64 X2 dual core with 4 GB ram (3 usable).

3 usable? Did you install Arc 32 bit or 64 bit? I think if 64 bit, Arch should see all of your RAM.

You've been using other distros for a while, so you already know older hardware loves linux (my experience, anyway). YMMV. Even so, I was amazed at the improvement Arch made over another popular distro - on a now 11 year old PC.

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy using Arch Linux.

tex

ewaller · 2016-06-20 00:06:07

Texbrew wrote:

[Arch should see all of your RAM.

But, that RAM could be being used for the frame buffer.

Texbrew · 2016-06-20 00:14:54

cmd wrote:

Hello everyone!,
Hi was using Ubuntu 14.04. I was prompted now and then to update to 14.10, so i wanted to shift to a different distro. Then found arch and its rolling releases. I loved the way it is installed. It took me about 3 hrs to install it. But that's when i got an alarm that arch will force to me to dig into my system every now and then.

It seems to me that you picked a good time to make the switch, and hey, I don't think 3 hours is bad at all. I know I spent much more time than that, just getting everything ready to issue the "pacstrap" command. The speed at which the base packages installed was astonishing to me...

Digging into the system is actually part of the fun for me; I'm aware that careless digging can break things, though.

My limited experience with Arch has shown me the importance of keeping the system up-to-date. Rolling release doesn't mean everything is done for me. Unlike other distros I have used, there are no automatic notices of available software updates with Arch Linux. It's good practice to check the Arch Linux Home Page for news on a regular basis.

Welcome to the forum.

tex

Texbrew · 2016-06-20 00:53:55

ewaller wrote:

Texbrew wrote:
[Arch should see all of your RAM.
But, that RAM could be being used for the frame buffer.

Thanks for the correction. I have noticed a difference between installed RAM and reported installed RAM using

 free -h

but the difference is usually less than 1Gb. This laptop with 8Gb physical RAM reports

$ free -h
                    total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:                 7.7G       1.7G       6.0G         0B       110M       758M
-/+ buffers/cache:              867M       6.9G

Is it this difference you are referring to, or am I missing the point?

tex

Arch Linux

#5376 2016-06-07 18:17:21

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#5377 2016-06-08 00:08:42

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#5378 2016-06-08 16:19:24

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#5393 2016-06-19 01:21:04

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#5394 2016-06-19 01:47:56

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#5395 2016-06-19 01:53:27

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#5396 2016-06-19 10:53:25

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