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Hello everyone,
I back after a "timeout" from using Linux. Between my job and my tweaking, I was wearing myself a little too thin and got very frustrated so I took a time out for almost 8 mths. I had to get away for a little while because I was making myself nuts and was way to absorbed in tweaking computers . Hey it happens right? So, this week I decided that I was going to install Linux back on my secondary system. I did some surfing and checked out a few distros to see what one would fit for me this time and how much they have grown. My intent was to get a system that installed easy, maintained itself easily and was a very small footprint. As a secondary system I just wanted it for D/L's, TV-Out for Movies and converting video. I did not want KDE or Gnome on the system so that limited my choices right there. Every distro and there brother uses either Gnome or KDE as there default. I do not want either. Here is what I tried and the end result.
Ubuntu/Xubuntu: Not a bad system but seemed to install more junk that I didn't need and was just impossible to get TV-Out working on my Nvidia Card. The install was pretty easy and I like the package manager. They had some good How To's but just didn't do the trick.
Vector Linux: Was very nice and fast. Exactlly what I was looking for. There were a few things that installed that I didn't really want but not bad. The one thing that I didn't like at all about this one was the package manager. It really sucked! Was terrible at Dep. checking and doing a --dist-upgrade destroyed my system. I got it back but still thats not good.
DSL: Was nice and small. Not a bad setup for the WM. But the packages were very limited and the default install had alot of things I didn't want to have. Yeah I know I could remove them but I'd much rather have a Base install first and work from there than have to remove things from the start.
Puppy: Nice distro. I actually have a copy of it on my Pendrive but again, default install with things I just don't want.
There were a few others out there that I tried but to make a long story short, I'm back to Arch Here are my points on Arch
Arch Linux: Extremely fast distro. The install is a breeze. Very easy and leaves you with a base install and that is it . Just what I was looking for. Highly configurable/customizable. I was able to install exactly what I wanted and nothing more (besides libs and deps of course). A huge repo of packages and the option to create my own is a plus for sure. TV-Out was very simple with Arch over others for some reason. The package manager is the best I have ever used "hands down". I just love it. Simple and powerful. I went with icewm/rox-session as my desktop and its lightning fast and simple. Had the whole system up and configured in about 3 hours maybe less. The only thing that gave me a little trouble was Xorg7 and fonts. Everything else went flawless. I just needed to install some other modules I was not aware of so that was not the distro's fault at all. There were a few changes since I stopped using the system (hwd, udev maturing and others) but its still about the same.
Oooh one important fact. I have a Nvidia Chipset Mobo and I have 2 USB Drives connected to the system and every Distro I tried (except Arch) would lock my system up with a Call Trace upon rebooting the system. Every Distro I tried!! I tried a variety of different config settings and boot parms and it would still do the same thing. Arch did not and has not done this once yet
In closing I just want to say that I am glad to be back using Arch 8) and I just wanted to say thank you very much to the Dev's and the community for such an excellent distro
Thank you
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Welcome back - glad you're enjoying Arch again. I agree with more or less everthing you said, and I particularly like your mention of a "huge repo of packages " - compared to some others, it's arguably on the small side, but it's in tune with the Arch approach, and ABS makes it easy to build your own - which you can then submit to the AUR for sharing.
See you around the forum (and if you feel like it, the ML, IRC, AUR, Wiki, Bugtracker, etc.)
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I also agree with you PeskyGee. I am new to Arch, and love it. As far as the number of packages available, I think it's perfect. I haven't had a problem finding any apps I need, and on top of that, they are up to date. The more packages you have, the more manpower is required to update them, and I dealt with outdated packages many times with Gentoo...not anymore.
Arch is a good thing -----> good times.
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