Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

TCBear · 2017-09-02 00:32:46

I use Arch as my main system. I use the a11y services, mostly Orca with Mate, and run a Dell Optiplex 780 headless. I also have an old 32 bit laptop as a backup, but I'll probably find another 780 before November as a backup.

titan-c · 2017-09-02 13:20:39

I use Arch on my laptop, and on my work PC. Laptop sometimes has problems when I have to give a talk and somehow it does not always work. But I guess is a common pattern that it doesn't work. I doesn't always work for other people using other OS either.

Blasphemist · 2017-09-02 14:22:04

Arch is all I use on all of my systems, and most of those I support.

mclang · 2017-09-11 18:28:16

Arch has been my main distro at home since 2005 and work two years already when I finally could cast away the shackles of Windows

bloodh101 · 2017-09-17 21:45:12

Started using Antergos just over a year ago, which granted isn't quite the same, however it helps to become accustomed to the idea of "doing more yourself".
I'm now using Arch on all my PC's, with the exception of CentOS on my server.

I don't regret the switch, though I'm still fairly new to Linux as a whole so it's not necessarily the easiest / best solution.

cirkit · 2017-09-17 21:56:35

Arch on all my own servers, but not desktop systems. Used to run Arch on the desktop around 2006-2008, though.

draner · 2017-09-17 22:20:45

I am computer science student. I use arch linux as my operating system. Its been a couple of years. Though my friends say i am an idiot to use such a complicated os while windows is there to use right out of the box. Guess i prefer the hard way and its advantages.

ewaller · 2017-09-17 23:27:47

draner wrote:

Though my friends say i am an idiot to use such a complicated os while windows is there to use right out of the box. Guess i prefer the hard way and its advantages.

The funny part is that I consider Windows to be a not half bad OS for a corporate environment[1] where there is a large and professional staff whose task it is to administer those systems. For an individual at home without a full time support staff, forgot it.

edit: [1] Corporate environment --> An environment where one must cater to the lowest common denominator where people who have no interest in their computers beyond it being a tool which allows them to interact with the lowest common denominator within their organization and the lowest common denominator from other organizations.

Last edited by ewaller (2017-09-18 00:57:31)

misanthropist · 2017-09-18 00:04:32

I've been using FreeBSD for nearly 20 years, and I migrated to Arch just the other day. While I still think FreeBSD is an excellent system, it's become increasingly difficult over the past few years to use it as a desktop system, and I finally decided that the pain of migrating and learning something new was less than the pain of trying to get FreeBSD to cooperate. The manual installation and configuration processes don't scare me at all, on the contrary that's how I want it, which is why, after careful consideration, I decided on Arch.

And to answer OP's question, I intend to use Arch as my daily driver, and I hope to do so for many years to come, because what I've seen so far has been to my liking.

I'm a hobby artist, working in Blender and occasionally MakeHuman.

eschwartz · 2017-09-18 03:09:29

bloodh101 wrote:

Started using Antergos just over a year ago, which granted isn't quite the same, however it helps to become accustomed to the idea of "doing more yourself".
I'm now using Arch on all my PC's, with the exception of CentOS on my server.
I don't regret the switch, though I'm still fairly new to Linux as a whole so it's not necessarily the easiest / best solution.

It could be debated whether this is actually the easiest solution. After all, one of the main selling points of Arch is that in return for an initial "understand your system" investment it is more intuitive to get/keep things running later on.

As for best? Best is incredibly subjective, since what is best for one person is not best for someone else. It is unambiguously the best for you, if it is what makes you productive or teaches you more about linux or gives you something fun to play with or whatever it is that you are hoping to get out of the use of your computer.

hobbledehoy899 · 2017-09-18 04:29:19

I've been running Arch as the primary operating system on my laptop for around two months now, and so far it seems to be the perfect fit for me!

Buddlespit · 2017-09-18 21:51:30

Arch is my daily driver and has been for a few years. It's on my desktop, laptop and home server. I keep a Windows 10 partition to play games (Mass Effect!!) on my desktop. I recently acquired a printer for my business and I have issues using the correct paper cartridge in Arch. So if I need to print, it's off to windows.

fcuk112 · 2017-09-22 21:30:34

I have been using Arch on and off for many years, now using Manjaro GNOME as my daily driver which makes life so much easier!

zaxdan69 · 2017-09-23 10:01:17

After many years with dual boot linux/windows(with different distros including arch), the last 3 years I'm using Arch daily.

redeemedofgod · 2017-09-29 23:14:50

Little late to the party, but I use nothing but arch on my personal laptop...at work (help desk technician), unfortunately I am forced on windows

dminca · 2017-09-30 09:08:51

Arch on work PC, Arch on personal PC. On the personal PC I play around with dmcrypted drive, SELinux et. al. the personal laptop acts more as a security hardening lab.

If it works on my personal PC, I'm deploying it on the work one as well.

In case I lost all the shit on my ArchLinux, I can bring everything up in 10 minutes via Ansible: https://github.com/WizDevOps/containerschiff the archlinux branch is dedicated for it, while the master branch is for the shitty debian that I run on Vagrant to test server stuff...

83bytes · 2017-10-02 09:57:25

I am a Computer Science student and I use Arch for all of my computing needs. Sometimes I do run Windows and other Linux distros in Virtualbox. The servers I manage run Debian. My raspberry pi runs Raspbian.

laika · 2017-11-14 04:54:24

I suppose I have been continuously for the last year on my laptop save for my FreeBSD DigitalOcean boxes.

The desktop I have neglected this past year is however still running Debian sid, but so far in 2017 I haven't touched that machine much outside a brief period this summer.

applebaps · 2017-12-12 00:17:12

I wish I could use Arch more than I do.

I've had to do some experimenting with other distros for specific purposes, like Bodhi for an old 32-bit laptop that just needs to run a slideshow at work (would've used Arch if it wasn't x86_64 exclusive), or Ubuntu to show my husband a quick-and-dirty Linux distro that just works out of the box with a lot of graphical options that mimic what he's used to, to help sell him on moving off of Windows. But if Arch would have sufficed in either of those applications, I would've used it in a heartbeat. I'm still torn on whether I should tear up that 'buntu machine and do it again in Arch just for fun, haha. Turns out the computer in the living room is kind of a potato and a lightweight distro would be better....

The biggest factor that keeps Windows installed at ALL in our house is gaming. You can talk about the large library of Steam games (which IS great, don't get me wrong), or how WINE exists etc., and that's all well and good. But the #1 biggest thing that stands in my way when it comes to converting others to Linux in general is how difficult it is to get even very basic things up and running when it comes to sound and video. There's always some problem, and nothing is quite plug and play out of the box. Either WINE doesn't quite cut it, or your sound won't work, or your GPU drivers aren't quite right, or the mouse interface on your video player isn't responding, or your headset mic isn't being sensed correctly etc. There's so many games we just need to have Windows installed to run because of this, and it grinds my gears.

I know things are much much better on the Linux gaming front than they were even 5 years ago. But it's still not up to snuff, in my opinion. I can't convince people to sit and wrangle with a terminal for an afternoon just to play something they can already play on an existing install, as much as I might love the flexibility, cleanliness, power, and potential of Linux, and Arch in particular. And sometimes, it's a bit much even for me. It doesn't help that the WineHQ DB isn't really updated all that well (yes I know that's something I could help with), so there's not a good predictor of whether something will work or not before trying / wasting a bunch of time.

It's frustrating, to be honest, and it's for the sake of like a dozen games, tops. If it weren't for multimedia / gaming, I'd absolutely be using Arch 100% of the time. But if it's a choice between spending an evening after work playing a fun game on an OS I hate, or spending an evening after work wrestling with trying to get a game to work and not always succeeding on an OS I love... it's not a choice I want to be forced into, but here we are.

At work, I'm the office manager for a doctor's office (though I end up being the IT person when our actual sysadmin, who mostly works other places, can't make it down to the office), and our practice management / EHR software is Windows-exclusive. I looked into FOSS alternatives and found one or two good ones, but the doctor/CEO wasn't interested in switching even for free, so yep. We're stuck.

Last edited by applebaps (2017-12-12 01:57:22)

Alad · 2017-12-12 11:22:38

There's always some problem, and nothing is quite plug and play out of the box. (...)

You make it sound like you're sharing some revolutionary point of view...

https://itvision.altervista.org/why.lin … rrent.html

(ignore the author and reader comments in that article, just click all the links posted there)

Last edited by Alad (2017-12-12 11:22:58)

applebaps · 2017-12-12 18:15:02

Alad wrote:

There's always some problem, and nothing is quite plug and play out of the box. (...)
You make it sound like you're sharing some revolutionary point of view...
https://itvision.altervista.org/why.lin … rrent.html
(ignore the author and reader comments in that article, just click all the links posted there)

I didn't intend it that way haha, I'm relatively new to Linux so this stuff is all fresh for me. Sorry if it's the same old tune for everyone else.

Lone_Wolf · 2017-12-12 18:34:38

applebaps wrote:

If it weren't for multimedia / gaming, I'd absolutely be using Arch 100% of the time

Consider getting a system with 2 videocards and using pci passthrough to run windows in a VM with native graphics performance.
It can be hard to setup , but it's rewarding.
(A friend of mine recently ditched his remaining windows-only system for a ryzen / amd vega / older nvidia setup , windows gets the 'old' nvidia card from the other system.)

applebaps · 2017-12-12 19:33:00

Lone_Wolf wrote:

applebaps wrote:
If it weren't for multimedia / gaming, I'd absolutely be using Arch 100% of the time
Consider getting a system with 2 videocards and using pci passthrough to run windows in a VM with native graphics performance.
It can be hard to setup , but it's rewarding.
(A friend of mine recently ditched his remaining windows-only system for a ryzen / amd vega / older nvidia setup , windows gets the 'old' nvidia card from the other system.)

That is a really excellent idea actually. The biggest thing holding me back from just having windows on a VM was the lack of 3D/GPU... but yeah just having a 2nd GPU does solve that problem semi-neatly doesn't it, haha

For now, I'm downgrading to W7 to get the spyware off my system and buy me some time to keep playing the games I want to play. I want to learn more so I can help contribute to things like Wine and graphical APIs and sound issues in Linux, but the big thing standing in my way there is a lack of knowledge plus gaining that knowledge has to be done on my own time for no pay which isn't a super attractive prospect for someone already working full time in a non-dev capacity. Like I can do it, I want to do it, but if I start down that road it's going to be all I do on my evenings and weekends for years. And Warframe / R6 Siege / Nier Automata are all sitting right there, already fun and waiting...

Last edited by applebaps (2017-12-12 19:35:02)

Snorlax · 2017-12-18 13:42:53

Arch for laptop, Debian for server

mrunion · 2017-12-18 13:50:03

Absolute pure opinion only, and you guys may entirely disagree:

Unless you are a game developer, if one is saying gaming is what holds them to using Windows, one's priorities are out of order. If one wants to move to Linux, don't let games be the reason to not do so.

Buy a console, sure. But if one seriously want to use Linux, games won't be what's holding them back if they are serious about it.

Last edited by mrunion (2017-12-18 13:50:22)

Arch Linux

#76 2017-09-02 00:32:46

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#77 2017-09-02 13:20:39

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#78 2017-09-02 14:22:04

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#79 2017-09-11 18:28:16

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#80 2017-09-17 21:45:12

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#81 2017-09-17 21:56:35

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#82 2017-09-17 22:20:45

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#83 2017-09-17 23:27:47

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#84 2017-09-18 00:04:32

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#85 2017-09-18 03:09:29

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#86 2017-09-18 04:29:19

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#87 2017-09-18 21:51:30

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#88 2017-09-22 21:30:34

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#89 2017-09-23 10:01:17

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#90 2017-09-29 23:14:50

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#91 2017-09-30 09:08:51

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#92 2017-10-02 09:57:25

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#93 2017-11-14 04:54:24

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#94 2017-12-12 00:17:12

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#95 2017-12-12 11:22:38

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#96 2017-12-12 18:15:02

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#97 2017-12-12 18:34:38

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#98 2017-12-12 19:33:00

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#99 2017-12-18 13:42:53

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

#100 2017-12-18 13:50:03

Re: Anybody using Arch as their daily driver?

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