And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

mac57 · 2006-01-09 03:32:47

First of all, thanks to the kind folks in this forum who answered my initial questions on ArchLinux. With those answers in hand, and the excellent information available on the main website, I took the plunge today. This post is coming to you from my newly installed ArchLinux 0.7.1 (Noodle) system.

First impressions? Wow! This puppy is FAST! I am REALLY impressed with the speed. On my machine (3.0 GHz P4 with 1G RAM) Arch boots from Grub prompt to login prompt in just 15 seconds! And that is with over 147 modules loaded (lsmod | wc -l). I am sure I can trim this a little bit by getting rid of some of the unecessary modules. From bash prompt to full XFCE4 desktop, via startx, is only another 10s, for a total of 25 s from Grub pompt to full graphical desktop. By comparison, on the same box, SuSE 9.3 takes 90s to achieve the same result.

The nvidia driver installation was the simplest I have ever seen anywhere - just install the module and you are up and running. Excellent. No trouble whatsoever.

The installer was just right. Lots of flexibility and not a lot of fru-fru nonsense. Very simple, very easy to work with, very easy to recover from errors. I like it. The only complaint I would have with it is that it wouldn't let me install Grub to my floppy drive - not offered as an option. I found a way around that though.

Overall, for an *experienced* linux user, Arch looks fabulous. I think a newbie would be confounded by it though. Like all the Arch literature says, you can't be afraid of the command line and use Arch!

Anyway, first impressions are positive in the extreme. I think I am going to like being an Arch user!

Thanks again to the folks who responded to my initial posts. Much appreciated. It is the spirit of community that makes linux such a great place to be.

Dusty · 2006-01-09 03:51:00

Great to have you on board, glad you like it!

Dusty

hotsauce · 2006-01-09 04:19:45

right on!

ozar · 2006-01-09 04:24:48

Welcome to Arch Linux! 8)

Have fun with the distro and be sure to visit the forums often...

phrakture · 2006-01-09 04:27:56

Hey, grats and all that jazz! Noodle wins.

clarence · 2006-01-09 08:25:27

Welcome to the Arch world of sensible.

arooaroo · 2006-01-09 08:49:09

mac57 wrote:

And that is with over 147 modules loaded (lsmod | wc -l). I am sure I can trim this a little bit by getting rid of some of the unecessary modules.

Yeah, this is a fairly new development with the new hw detect routines and init scripts.

Check out this thread.

postlogic · 2006-01-09 09:32:57

Nice to see people that excited about Arch. Much like I was, moving from Slackware. Welcome aboard!

elasticdog · 2006-01-09 13:13:30

Yarrr...good to have ye with us matey!

arooaroo · 2006-01-09 13:47:06

elasticdog wrote:

Yarrr...good to have ye with us matey!

Is it Talk Like a Pirate Day again already?!? Yarr, I can't wait for Arch 0.pieces_of_8.

dtw · 2006-01-09 15:16:02

Postive comment (+1 post count)

deficite · 2006-01-10 04:52:51

You guys had pirate day without me......... :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Anyway, good job on going to Arch. Are you good with addictions? I've been trying to get off this one for a long time and I've always failed. I guess I have no willpower

Moo-Crumpus · 2006-01-10 07:09:56

Welcome to the lunatics' community...

mac57 · 2006-01-10 15:34:28

Everyone, thanks for all the positive feedback! I love loonies - you have to be a bit nuts you know. Don't take life too seriously - it isn't a permanent condition! :-)

Seriously though, I have been playing with my ArchLinux 0.7.1 now for another day or so, and I am even MORE impressed. Everything just seems to work! My webcam (Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000) just worked! This is the first linux release I have EVER worked with where I didn't have to sweat bullets to get it going. My ATAPI Zip-250 drive just worked! GnomeMeeting just worked!

I am amazed! ArchLinux is the linux I have been looking for. It is fast, svelte, very capable... and Pacman - wow! This is also the first linux release I have ever worked with where the package manager didn't produce oddball failures all over the place. Pacman has been consistently successful for me, and like everything else in Arch, very, very fast.

I am really impressed. Great work guys!

One question - where is ArchLinux developed? I get a sense that it may hail from Germany, looking at the available language choices?

lucke · 2006-01-10 16:19:38

It originated in Canada, thanks to Judd (yay!). However, developers are scattered all around the world (as is the rest of the community, obviously). Check developers' page on main page for more details about devs ;-)

Bysshe · 2006-01-10 22:09:10

cool.

Pacman will continue to impress you as time goes on with the control over packages it has. No matter what, stick with it. There isn't anything pacman doesn't have a solution for. Very powerful and common-sense piece of software. Welcome, BTW.

sudman1 · 2006-01-11 12:02:52

Bysshe wrote:

There isn't anything pacman doesn't have a solution for.
except version rollback... but I think it's planned for pacman v3

v/r
Suds

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Arch Linux

#1 2006-01-09 03:32:47

And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#2 2006-01-09 03:51:00

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#3 2006-01-09 04:19:45

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#4 2006-01-09 04:24:48

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#5 2006-01-09 04:27:56

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#6 2006-01-09 08:25:27

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#7 2006-01-09 08:49:09

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#8 2006-01-09 09:32:57

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#9 2006-01-09 13:13:30

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#10 2006-01-09 13:47:06

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#11 2006-01-09 15:16:02

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#12 2006-01-10 04:52:51

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#13 2006-01-10 07:09:56

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#14 2006-01-10 15:34:28

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#15 2006-01-10 16:19:38

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#16 2006-01-10 22:09:10

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

#17 2006-01-11 12:02:52

Re: And the Odyssey Begins - 1st Impressions of ArchLinux-0.7.1

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