The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

I am Gianluca · 2013-02-02 13:49:51

After fucked up the system about 6 months ago, I decided to switch to a simpler distribution. Ubuntu was my first GNU/Linux distribution, so I gave it a try and have been pleased with it until now.
Yesterday I was in front on my laptop.. and was wondering what mouse pad I could buy.. a personalised one could be a great idea, and why not an Arch Linux one?
5 seconds later I was in the forum, and 10 seconds later I was resisting from download the new install media. But I did it at the end.
I will install Arch Linux in a virtual partition just to see if I am still able to do it. I definitely miss the raw speed of the distribution and a solid package manager as Pacman. I am still a bid unsure about if it is a great idea use it as my daily distribution, mainly because I don't want to spend much time on configuration adjustments to keep things working, and focus more on use the laptop as it is intended to be used.
At the end of the day, with Arch Linux I learned a lot, and Ubuntu it is not the distribution I dream about. Arch Linux is good because aloud you easily to create your own distribution putting together the packages you like. Although it is not always a straight way, and sometimes I found myself struggling with something I wasn't prepared enough to master I've always appreciated the Arch Linux community and documentation. I consider them two of the main strong points of this project.
I hope to re-join Arch Linux as soon as I can and be a little more conscious than 6 months ago.
I am really happy to be in the forum again. Hope to enjoy another great period with you.

Gianluca

Unia · 2013-02-02 14:48:59

I remember you, I think Welcome back!

felixculpa · 2013-02-02 16:19:57

I used Ubuntu as my first distro, many moons ago, but now I don't see myself ever going back to something like that for the same reasons you gave. Arch is great for a few solid reasons: great wiki/documentation, solid community, PACMAN, and most important of all is the customization (software wise), you can build a KDE or Gnome DE or whatever you choose. It is also on the bleeding edge with it's software compared to other distros, I can only imagine perhaps someday getting into Gentoo (just to learn more about Linux). I can't comment on the "speed" as it's been so long, so I can't make a comparison

Welcome back.

I am Gianluca · 2013-02-02 16:53:51

I don't see a speed issue with Ubuntu as paramount. I'm not happy with it, but I think that deleting packages and installing what you prefer you can have similar performance to Arch. The problem is how much time you should spend to obtain the same result. On Arch you start with a minimalistic system and you can start creating your own distribution from the very first moment.
I prefer develop my ideal OS installing my favourite pieces of software than stripping down useless packages from an already mature distribution and substitute them with others.
In this sense Arch Linux is way better.

Ubuntu is really good to me. I really enjoy it since the very beginning and found some features brilliant. But it is not what I would like to see and use strictly after boot up the system.
Anybody can argue what good their team made on the last years. This is a really mature OS and one can struggle with Windows and Mac OS on the battle for "the best" OS for an average user.
I am not considering myself as a power user, but I am curious and relatively tech savvy. What I really miss about Arch Linux are the KISS principle, community and documentation. All of them are simply brilliant.

And of course, Arch Linux is like a challenge. Out of the box is not what you call an user-friendly environment. But using logic and common sense you can build up something truly special.

@ Unia: I remember you too thank you for your welcome. Did you change your avatar?

jasonwryan · 2013-02-02 18:25:03

Merging with the Official Arch is Great or whatever thread...

Xisiqomelir · 2013-02-07 03:55:58

I am Gianluca wrote:

Yesterday I was in front on my laptop.. and was wondering what mouse pad I could buy.. a personalised one could be a great idea, and why not an Arch Linux one?
5 seconds later I was in the forum, and 10 seconds later I was resisting from download the new install media. But I did it at the end.

Haha, I know this feeling, and I too am back after a hiatus! I just love openbox (with black Dandelion theme) too much, and Arch is such a great platform to run it on.

Something that I found in my wanderings which I'd like equivalents for in Arch is Ubuntu One filesync - This was great for syncing a project folder between my desktop/laptop and phone. Is there a similar drag-and-drop hassle-free file syncer?

I'm really excited about Valve's huge Linux push, it should be fantastic for all Linux users. I've been Microsoft-free all my life, so I'm looking forward to playing these games I had to miss out on.

EDIT: I see people are installing UbuntuOne in Arch! Must try this

EDIT2:

I'm not rebooting ever again! Arch is Best!

Last edited by Xisiqomelir (2013-02-07 04:16:36)

check · 2013-02-11 20:51:28

I am also back again.
Hopefully i will get it this times installed like i want. Hard times after not having the Installer anymore. Snief.
But i think Arch has the best package manager on earth. Right now i am sitting before elementary OS Luna beta and Apt feels so slow.
And yeah i also like you guys a lot, last time i read on phoronix that you have requested Steam to be in the standard repos.

Hopefully i get ZFS to work too..

Last edited by check (2013-02-11 21:25:34)

welpert · 2013-02-11 22:11:45

blast. misquoted a diferent post.

But, arch remains best!

Last edited by welpert (2013-02-11 22:12:25)

arinlares · 2013-02-12 03:42:38

I dropped a 2GB RAM card and 128GB SSD in my netbook, and decided I wanted something "stable", as in old packages supported and fixed over a long period with the intent of getting a setup I could then migrate to a new laptop I'll be buying soon. Now, I'm back to Arch after apt-get was too slow, nobody seemed to offer a system I wanted, unless I wanted to spend as much time beating it into shape as I have on Arch anyway. The closest I got was Crunchbang, but there's still a lot to remove, and I don't really like apt-get, and feel I should just dedicate my time to fully learning pacman.

The new install was fun, too! I'm looking forward to doing that again.

nomorewindows · 2013-02-12 11:55:29

arinlares wrote:

I dropped a 2GB RAM card and 128GB SSD in my netbook, and decided I wanted something "stable", as in old packages supported and fixed over a long period with the intent of getting a setup I could then migrate to a new laptop I'll be buying soon. Now, I'm back to Arch after apt-get was too slow, nobody seemed to offer a system I wanted, unless I wanted to spend as much time beating it into shape as I have on Arch anyway. The closest I got was Crunchbang, but there's still a lot to remove, and I don't really like apt-get, and feel I should just dedicate my time to fully learning pacman.
The new install was fun, too! I'm looking forward to doing that again.

If you're going to spend all of your time fixing something, might as well break it the way you want it, I always say.

Last edited by nomorewindows (2013-02-12 11:57:30)

elkoraco · 2013-02-22 14:02:27

I used to dislike Arch really, mostly due to AIF and the BSD init system. I liked pacman, simplified compiling as opposed to other binary distros, the vanilla philosophy, and the fact that it's one of the stabler distros, but the dislikes always trumped the likes. With the awesome new install scripts, plus the masterful implementation of systemd and Gnome lately, it's safe to say Arch is the best desktop distribution around (well, maybe openSUSE as well, but they're very KDE centric, whereas Arch is open-ended). Granted, I've only been using it for a few days now, so something might break horribly, but I'm not too worried about it, I doubt the breakage can be worse than what Debian and Fedora put on you.

So, big huzzah to the developers, great work.

Unia · 2013-02-22 15:27:00

elkoraco wrote:

I used to dislike Arch really, mostly due to AIF and the BSD init system. I liked pacman, simplified compiling as opposed to other binary distros, the vanilla philosophy, and the fact that it's one of the stabler distros, but the dislikes always trumped the likes. With the awesome new install scripts, plus the masterful implementation of systemd and Gnome lately, it's safe to say Arch is the best desktop distribution around (well, maybe openSUSE as well, but they're very KDE centric, whereas Arch is open-ended). Granted, I've only been using it for a few days now, so something might break horribly, but I'm not too worried about it, I doubt the breakage can be worse than what Debian and Fedora put on you.
So, big huzzah to the developers, great work.

Can't believe I just read that!

elkoraco · 2013-02-22 15:49:27

Unia wrote:

Can't believe I just read that!

Well, I'll still be trolling Arch fanbois on other boards

Darkgod · 2013-02-22 17:17:03

Does anyone else find it strange that Ubuntu One is in the main repository but Gnome Boxes is not?

jasonwryan · 2013-02-22 23:19:58

Darkgod, this is the Arch is Best thread. I am not sure where your post belongs, but I am pretty sure it isn't here...

Kooothor · 2013-03-06 14:43:55

Arch is great :

- install stuff
- read wiki page (often way better than official doc)
- google error message (if any)
- find [SOLVED] thread on forum (often first google result)
-
- PROFIT !

Really I find it amazing, for every single problem I had with my setup, I found a solution either from the forum or the wiki.

I just want to say thanks to the community

See you,
~ktr

Awebb · 2013-03-06 15:36:18

As a self-proclaimed representative of the community, I hereby announce, that we all gladly accept your gratitude.

ANOKNUSA · 2013-03-06 15:37:05

The Official Unofficial 'Arch Is Best' Thread

Awebb · 2013-03-06 16:20:56

Arch is weird. I cannot run old games in Wine without massive lag on the netbook, I cannot get over 6fps in minecraft, even after adding every single tweak on the intertubez. I cannot print from dotnet4 applications in wine and I cannot open half dotnet4 applications in mono, but the moment I run a Windows XP entity in Virtualbox, I am suddenly able to do everything (besides minecraft perhaps). Arch is weird. On every other distro I have tried so far, my netbook would simply shit itself and deactivate, if I ever dreamed of using KDE in eye candy berserk mode™, but Arch does not care. I would also not dream about using a VM on the netbook, because of massive laggs, incompatible modules.

So, should the day come, where people say: "Arch is no good. Not for anything." You can shout "Stop! I have valid sources (a guy on the intertubez), that Arch can run Windows XP in Virtualbox on a first-generation Tamagochi!"

Arch can't do some things. I am unable to use KDE in German, only in a partial translation. Which is funny, KDE being originally a Germany-based project.

Then again, Arch can do things. I recently possessed the eternal love for all humankind and expressed it, by helping a friend, who happens to be a wonderful person, but also a technical imbecile (his words), with his brand-new netbook. I showed him KDE, which he totally preferred over Gnome 3 and Unity (how could he?!), so WOOOSH I went to get the Mint KDE image, which could, unfortunately, not be booted on the netbook, because Intel now seems to implement GPU parts from the future. I promptly ignited the torrenter and summoned a wild copy of OpenSuse, which installed splendidly, but failed to allow access to the network. The weird pard was, that the wifi connection actually worked, it connected, authenticated, got an IP, but unfortunately refused to transmit any packages, because wifi hell is a real place, where soul-eating chameleons eat network transmissions. The only beginner-friendly distro that did both was Fedora, but only after manually convincing the networkmanager to activate the wifi chip. Funny. Even the Arch installer worked on the netbook, including wifi. Maybe when he knows more…

I tried so many times to escape, but it does not work. Whenever I look over the fence, to see what the guy next door is growing in his garden, I realize I prefer the way Arch handles things. Source packages? PKGBUILD. How many versions per lib? One. Have the urge to ask something easy on the forums? Bad idea, think for yourself.

Awebb · 2013-03-06 16:30:29

elkoraco wrote:

Unia wrote:
Can't believe I just read that!
Well, I'll still be trolling Arch fanbois on other boards

Hah! The crunchgang, alltogether…

McDoenerKing · 2013-03-06 16:49:11

My netbook with arch on it somehow became my main machine. This netbook didn't receive any hardware upgrades, but it runs flawlessly. I may upgrade the netbook, when my guarantee expires this summmer with 2GB RAM and a SSD.

This netbook may convert one of my fellows at the university. He has a small notebook from 2006 and WinXP is running awful on it, so when he saw my boottime, screenspace etc he just said "Wow linux is really fast." . We will most likely set it up this weekend. It will be pretty cool to not be alone anymore, when it comes to linux.

It is still sad to see that netbook failed on the market, because the companies behind it didn't pull it off correctly. The only mobile alternative left for me is an ultrabook, but they're quite expensive.

fsckd · 2013-03-06 16:53:34

Merged in Kooothor's thread, title was "Working with Arch".

Alastor · 2013-03-10 09:04:53

Arch for me is the best beacuse I don't have to go crazy to mod or install some programs\files, because with Arch I have the AUR, and beacuse is easy to install the proprietary driver !

Skyxer · 2013-03-18 22:09:33

This question gets asked often enough - this represents the collective wisdom of the boards on the topic.

tl;dr - if you have to ask, probably not...

-jwr

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This might sound a dumb question, but I have to ask it.

I'm currently studying Computer Engineering, and for the past month, I've left all that is related to gaming and did a full migration to Linux.
Yes I do like to thinker with my computer, and modify everything until its exactly the way I want it, but maybe I'm doing it all wrong!

I've been using Ubuntu (Which was the first distro I've ever used) full time for the past month and it now feels that I've completely overcome the need to use Windows OS(finally!), I've tweaked it to my liking and stripped down any additional stuff that I would not or might not need that came bundled with the default Ubuntu install, and unity just felt right for the time being, but, as you all know, even though I have 8GB of ram on both my desktop and laptop computer, Ubuntu is quite memory hungry, and I actually prefer minimalist over pretty (I use Vim as my default code editor, or sublime depending on what I'm doing).

I understand that Arch is bleeding edge, but, do I by using it am taking the risk of sitting in class one day and Arch stops me from using Eclipse, or even Java itself that would be some kind of setback? I'm also pretty scared of the new no installer arch version (last time I installed arch it had the GUI).

Please help a Arch newbie find its way before even starting out, because I'm sure if I manage to get it running on my laptop again (I already tried Arch once and successfully installed GNOME 3 so I could test all my hardware).

Thank you for reading.

Last edited by jasonwryan (2013-06-11 08:46:58)

mrunion · 2013-03-18 22:21:20

Use what you like best. As for Arch causing an issue with an upgrade and it quits working -- it can happen. Read the forums and news before upgrading to see if there are any showstoppers. Upgrade on the weekend to be safe -- and have time to roll back or fix issues if they arise.

But bottom line -- like the distro you use no matter which one it is.

Arch Linux

#726 2013-02-02 13:49:51

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#727 2013-02-02 14:48:59

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