The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

Zancarius · 2012-05-31 01:09:30

I've been mulling over whether or not to post here for a while, and given how much I've been enjoying Arch there's probably little reason to delay any further. I apologize ahead of time as I'm known to be unnecessarily verbose.

First, a brief history: My introduction to the world of free/open source software began with the BSDs. Specifically, I cut my teeth first on OpenBSD circa 2000-ish and then transitioned to FreeBSD when I discovered (at that time) that the latter had much wider software support. I didn't learn of the hidden utility in having access to a ports collection for probably a year or two later, and in retrospect it would've saved me some upgrade-related grief. (I compiled everything by hand at that point, blissfully ignorant of the better, easier way to do things.)

Fast forward another year or two or three, probably around the time of the FreeBSD 4.x-5.x transition and in a small part due to the lack of hardware support in the 5.x branch, I decided to try out a flavor of Linux (circa 2003-2004). The Linux world was a bit different: The ecosystem was decidedly vaster than what I had grown accustomed to, and there were so many choices in terms of distributions; because of my experience with BSD-like OSes, I elected to use Gentoo. Gentoo served me well for many years with periodic forays into Ubuntu and others, but I found that I preferred distros which maintained some sort of spiritual ties to the BSD philosophy. But, as time wore on, Gentoo began to show its age, and upgrading had become for me a trial of patience. There's nothing wrong with building everything from scratch, but I found that I had increasingly less time to devote to rebuilding world. My personal needs had changed, and on the insistence of a Slashdot poster who continued praising Arch time and again, I decided to give it a try in late 2010/early 2011.

Essentially, Arch is everything I wanted in a distro. Sure, it has sharp edges that can surprise new users (don't they all?), but what actually hooked me was the AUR. I found packages for (almost) everything that wasn't part of the standard repos (indeed, if it doesn't exist in the AUR, it probably doesn't exist at all). I could easily find packages that didn't exist in Gentoo's portage without having to dig up a questionable overlay (if it existed), and the best part (for me) is that everything is ridiculously simple to install. When I delved into learning how to assemble my own PKGBUILDs, it dawned on me that the Arch philosophy includes a fair dose of minimalism that meshes exceptionally well with my needs. If I said that the pacman libraries expressed this minimalism in addition to a great deal of utility, ingenuity, and intuitiveness, I'd be lying, because it's truly so much more, and I've grown fond of it.

Honestly, I've never had so much fun using a distro. Indeed, Arch has made living in the *nix world enjoyable for me again. It reminds me of my early ventures into Gentoo so long ago and the fun associated with learning something new, minus the frustration of lengthy build times (and blocking packages...). This is what using Linux is like; this is what it should be about.

Much of this is also largely because of the Arch ecosystem and philosophy, but the community fundamentally drove me to appreciate the distro so much more.

I've been lurking the forums since approximately the middle of last year and was a little apprehensive about joining. While I'm not prone to asking for help, because I find asking for advice to be a better means to an end since you can then weigh each opinion equally, and part of the fun with facing a problem is figuring it out yourself, I'm terrible at keeping up with things! In retrospect, I suppose I didn't realize that my philosophy matched the community's so closely, but I can say that's changed. You learn a lot here!

More importantly, though, the Arch philosophy serves as a filter: Individuals who are looking for a quick solution without doing any of the legwork go elsewhere early on or learn to adapt and appreciate the fulfilling and rewarding nature of learning things on your own. I've even seen a couple of threads that fell into the latter category--it's always fun to see the converts when they realize that the community is only here to help them help themselves. Also, the forum moderators are quick to manage unhelpful threads and take an active role in quality control--and do so politely and respectfully. These are efforts I would never have the patience to do myself, and I have a great deal of appreciation and respect for those of you who put so much effort into filtering out the wheat from the chaff. It's arduous work, but I assure you that there are many of us who appreciate it--even if we're too shy to post and say so!

Being part of a community that's polite, respectful, but also encourages new members to do their own exploration and research is refreshing. It's exactly what makes the Arch community stand out. I would like to say a big thank you to the Arch developers, forum moderators, trusted users, the community, and so many other volunteers who have made this OS my personal favorite and one that I recommend to everyone (everyone who's willing to learn, that is). I look forward to contributing back in the many years to come.

Thank you all!

sitquietly · 2012-05-31 16:23:20

Zancarius wrote:

.....began with the BSDs.....elected to use Gentoo.....Arch.....decided to give it a try.....Arch is everything I wanted in a distro. Sure, it has sharp edges ..... includes a fair dose of minimalism ..... I've grown fond of it.
Honestly, I've never had so much fun using a distro.....
Much of this is also largely because of the Arch ecosystem and philosophy, but the community fundamentally drove me to appreciate the distro so much more.
.....I would like to say a big thank you to the Arch developers, forum moderators, trusted users, the community, and so many other volunteers .....
Thank you all!

+A hearty agreement!

I followed almost exactly the same path, in the same years. It feels all Twilight Zone to read your story as if I had a doppelganger living my other life in New Mexico. For me BSD was mostly NetBSD, which I loved and still miss. Gentoo was great but strangely complicated and subject to difficult to resolve breakage. Working entirely from source code should make a system resilient and simple. Arch is a good compromise and I too am thankful to the forum moderators for maintaining a rational and focused discussion in the forums.

The only fault I can find with Arch is that it is not recompilable. An Arch installation can not in general recompile itself, but with a little scripting and maintaining a slightly modified fork of the abs/aur I'm able to put together a recompilable system with no more effort than Gentoo requires and all the advantages of Archlinux that you've listed. Best regards to my good doppelganger.

terminhell · 2012-06-01 08:35:23

Indeed, I've distro surfed far too long. Starting first with Gentoo (which ended in utter failure at the time) back in the early 2000's. Then Xandros (the free edition). After that Ubuntu 5.10. Skip forward a few years and I was still flip flopping between ubuntu and fedora mostly. I never liked their defaults, never liked how little I could really tweak. Then I found Arch. Never turned back...except once, and regretted it, but I've been back for a good year or so now.

monzer4819 · 2012-06-02 22:58:09

Yesterday I passed the EX300 exam from Red Hat via self study.

To study, I setup my main Archlinux based computer to host the VM's. So don't let anyone tell you that Arch isn't stable enough for such a purpose. I self-studied for about 6 months, running a complete virtual lab using KVM and libvirt. I ran combinations of Scientific Linux and Centos 6 and 6.2. I never had any issues related to my base OS running on the physical hardware. It was stable, I remoted to the VM's using ssh/vnc and did 50% of studying at work and 50% at home.

I first made the switch to Linux about 5 years ago, like most people first using Ubuntu. I eventually switched to FreeBSD (for about 2 years) and then found Arch. Ubuntu taught me that Linux could actually run on my computer, FreeBSD taught me patience and Arch taught me that Linux could be SIMPLE. The KISS philosophy is something I applied during my studying and during the actual exam.

Archlinux changed my life for the better.

Thank you, you're still my number one favourite OS, 3 years running.

*Edit, spelling errors

Last edited by monzer4819 (2012-06-02 23:00:36)

KingX · 2012-06-02 23:51:44

Good job.

jasonwryan · 2012-06-02 23:58:09

KingX wrote:

Good job.

Indeed: well done.

Merging with the Official Unofficial Arch is Best thread...

tmoore · 2012-06-03 01:05:46

I have been using Linux since around 1995, when I was using Slackware floppies to install kernel 0.95. Since then I have used almost every sort of Linux distribution. I have printed and read the LDP, surfed countless forums, and tinkered till my hearts content. I honestly have to say that Archlinux is the slickness, optimized, stable, and most importantly, documented distribution I've had the pleasure to work with. I honestly have found every single issue I encountered very fast and in a beautiful easy to understand format in the Wiki. I am very proud of your distribution, and I recommend it to all my advanced Linux friends as THE server/desktop OS to use when you don't want all that ubuntu/redhat cruft installed.

So hat's off to you guys, this is the way Linux is meant to be. Forever optimized and adaptable!

Tom

Last edited by tmoore (2012-06-03 01:06:17)

Hspasta · 2012-06-03 01:20:30

This exists for a good reason.

/dev/zero · 2012-06-03 01:31:03

tmoore wrote:

I am very proud of your distribution, and I recommend it to all my advanced Linux friends as THE server/desktop OS to use when you don't want all that ubuntu/redhat cruft installed.

It's good that you like Arch, but remember to respect other distros and OSes as well. The people behind them put in hard work. I personally still think Debian is an awesome distro, and I would also consider using FreeBSD, RHEL, or even OS X in the right circumstances.

jasonwryan · 2012-06-03 02:59:49

Hspasta wrote:

This exists for a good reason.

...and we are merging in 3 ...2 ...1

mostlybob · 2012-06-07 21:49:37

I'm on ArchBang (don't hold it against me ) and I think the thing I love most is just how fast and minimal it is. The OS at idle on start up shouldn't take up 1/2 the system resources. I have other things other things to use those for, so yeah, I'm functional in my approach. I don't really have anything against the more "featureful" DEs, but I've found after getting used to OpenBox with a few conky panels and tint2, other desktops just feel like they're getting in my way. My next stop would be a tiling window manager like Awesome, but not right now. :-)

And fast! I have a 3 year old Sager laptop w 4 gig RAM, 2.26 GHz Core2 processor and it goes from power on through boot and log-in to running desktop in 1:15. It shuts down in about 12s. Sweet. No more coffee breaks while my machine boots. That's my machine at work.

And like others have said, I've learned a great deal about running the system from having to configure it at a lower level than I have had to do usually on other distros - most of my other experience with with Debian/Ubuntu, although my very first distro was Mandrake 5.2 back in about 2000.

Arch is the best!

wdirksen · 2012-06-12 09:31:52

Going to chime in the Arch praise here. I've been into Linux for 5 years now. Could never get completely satisfied with the more standardized distros because if you have a specific need which digresses from their norm; you have to be a Linux power user to solve it (which I am not). I was least dissatisfied with OpenSuse . . .

Then in 2010 I stumbled upon a solution I was looking for for years which was an AUR package. Oh great I thought cynically, to try this I have to do a new distro . . grumble . . . Oh well, I'll give it a wherl. What build from scratch with no mouse? Do I really want to try this? Within an hour the beauty of DIY Linux hit me like a nice warm shower out of the cold rain.

What is actually so surprizing about Arch is not so much that the DYI method is appealing. It is stable and works!

You have to love Arch Linux!
Long live the Arch WIKI and the AUR!

Last edited by wdirksen (2012-06-12 09:33:07)

tyler.heck · 2012-06-17 08:34:02

After years of OS X (which is a nice way to get introduced to Unix-like systems), I finally gave into the itch to gain a better understanding of an OS under the hood. I just recently bought a new laptop and immediately installed Arch. I'm never going back to anything else, these past few weeks have been fantastic. The freedom to mesh your own scripts and programs into the basic mechanics of the system, to be able to clearly see what the computer is doing, is great. I'm currently reading through sections of "The Linux Programming Interface" with using my Arch system as an experiment platform. I'm learning tons of new stuff and enjoying the freedom that Arch gives me to try it all. Perhaps if I program something useful to more people than myself I'll post it to the AUR. The least I could do is contribute back to such an excellent distro.

keepitsimpleengineer · 2012-06-27 19:54:57

After 45+ years working with computers, I am happiest when they do what I want with a minimum of attention. Attention such as a pencil that needs sharpening every 15 seconds or a television that needs a volume adjustment every 30 seconds.

My work-style (retired, so hobbies - music, graphics, videos ) uses lots of apps and windows, so I use two monitors with compiz's cube and 3D windows. After some futzing, Ubuntu 10.04 did this nicely. Not so for 12.04 ( &11.10 &11.04), alas, the Canonical posse has galloped off in a quest for the elusive and capricious casual user, abandoning the seasoned user with high-end tools.

Archlinux to the rescue! In two days I installed Archlinux on my 64bit workstation. I use X windows, kdm window manager, XFce desktop, compiz window manager and Emerald decorator. And boy those CPU intensive jobs go like blazes. My face hurts I've been grinning so much.

Kudos to the Archlinux posse, could you all please point your elbows at the ceiling and pat yourself on the back!

Here are some screenshots of my Archlinux monitors:

Primary monitor

Secondary monitor

moderator edit: The images are too large. Please read Forum Etiquette: Pasting Pictures and Code. Thanks. --fsckd

Last edited by fsckd (2012-06-27 20:33:23)

fsckd · 2012-06-27 20:01:46

Nice shots keepitsimpleengineer! Do you mind replacing the images with thumbnails or simple links? They are quite a bit above our size limits: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … s_and_Code. Thanks and welcome to Arch.

Edit: I have edited your post for you and replaced the images with links.

Last edited by fsckd (2012-06-27 20:34:31)

keepitsimpleengineer · 2012-06-27 21:17:44

fsckd wrote:

Edit: I have edited your post for you and replaced the images with links.

Thank you very much

jwele · 2012-07-04 20:52:20

Bleeding edge, total control, logical config structure. THANK YOU GOD ARCH!

I tried to create a venn diagram but I ended up with a circle.

silly · 2012-07-09 08:46:06

the arch concept is just perfect.
* you get complete control over installation and configuratin (KISS philosophy) in a user friendly way, without having to compile everything..
* the documentation is just great. the wiki and beginner guide are very noob friendy (i had almost no issues when i started on arch).
* the packages officially supplied are a good mix of stable and bleeing edge and AUR is very convenient.
* a rolling release
* and the community is great.

the trouble i had with other distros is trying to find out what actually makes that stuff happen that i dont want to happen..
not so much in arch. stuff does not happen until I set it up to happen.

At the moment i have a cheap laptop with onboard graphics and an 1gHz Atom single core and a 8gb pcie ssd.
it boots in under 20s into compiz (plus lxpanel and emerald). i find that pretty amazing. (i have modded the uefi to only take 2s to load grub2)

Last edited by silly (2012-07-09 09:08:10)

macaco · 2012-07-16 21:07:32

For being the single best GNU/Linux distribution currently available. You combine nearly out-of-the-box working programms with a high degree of liberty. I need both and could not find anything like you in all those years of using Linux...

Thanks to all making this possible.

jasonwryan · 2012-07-16 21:09:10

It's all true.

Merging with the Official Arch is best thread...

duster · 2012-08-16 15:50:25

I've been using linux for 3 or 4 years now spent about 2 years using ubuntu and around 6 months with debian... after a while i decided to install arch linux after checking reviews and i have been very pleased with arch. I run a gateway NV50A laptop and arch setup was easy and painless. I just wanted to thank the developers for the work put into it friggin great system and i appreciate it. Managed to get everything to work without even having to install and proprietary software and the repositories have everything i need in them and also a lot of things i just wanted. You all did a great job thank you.

jasonwryan · 2012-08-16 17:38:30

Welcome.

Moving to the Official Arch is the Best thread...

nomorewindows · 2012-08-17 21:06:25

It all starts to sound similar...fed up with Windows, going through the motions (various distros) and you eventually end up at ArchLinux. All "roads" eventually lead to Arch. Starts to sound like the career path chart where no matter what path you take it inevitably leaves you working at McDonald's (I'm not a particular fan of McDonald's, but that's how the chart was drawn up originally).

Did I just do a pun? McDonald's is known for it's arch and ArchLinux is also known for its' arch. If you work for McDonald's competitor you might be using Pizzabox Linux.

barretme · 2012-08-21 21:12:59

edit: (this is my first post on these message boards, but they've been very helpful solving problems)

I agree 100%.

I've been using Linux on my desktop for like the last 4 years and am in the middle of my MS in Comp Sci. In the last year I've been hopping around on different distros (usually something in the Ubuntu family), but I am very happy with Arch and think I'll be sticking with it. I "rescued" 2 old laptops my family was going to toss by getting Arch running on them and they run great compared to how Windows was running on them. I still like Snow Leopard on OS X on my MacBook (however, I really don't like the iOS-ification of the desktop OS with Lion and Mountain Lion), but I think I am definitely sticking with Arch as my main OS on my desktop and this old Dell I'm typing on now :-D

Last edited by barretme (2012-08-21 21:19:18)

ben-arch · 2012-08-24 07:33:05

I'm running Arch on my own computer for the last 4+ years.
I'm running Arch on my daughter computer for the last 3+ years.
Both systems are upgraded on a monthly basis with no real issues (hint : upgrade regularly, read the news before the upgrade and follow instructions where needed).

I've just installed Arch on a new computer, will be used as a NAS, with NFS and autofs. No problems.

It's really time to say THANK YOU to the people behind Arch :
- the developers
- the wiki maintainers
- the testers
- the comunity that participate in the forum, sharing. and solving problems.
- and if I forgot anyone, than also you.

THANK YOU all.

Ben

Arch Linux

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