a welcome newcomer?

TechDragon · 2008-03-10 03:20:23

Hi,

I am on the search for a distro that I can be excited about.

I am a 33 year old IT professional for a corporation and I have about 20 year of experience in the IT field. Mostly support for windows based systems, and to be honest I am sick of it. I want a linux distro that works, and has cutting edge software while still being somewhat stable. I have been distro hopping and finding the only Linux distros I like are dev editions IE. Mandriva cooker, Ubuntu Hardy Heron, Fedora 9, Suse 11. The problem is that each has some of what I want but not all. I like to do a little gaming, a little dvd ripping etc, and these distros just dont have the repos to support it. I have been looking and have found that Gentoo and Arch have alot of what I am looking for, I like Arch better than gentoo because of the lack of compiling from source. Also, I like the AUR, and the ability to add to it.

So here in lies the questions.

1. I am pretty new to Linux and I have heard that newbies need not apply here, I am new but I am competent and I can follow directions if someone will give them. So are newbies welcome?

2. That there is no GUI controlled package management, is that true? If so is it hard to get stuff installed? Can you add a manager such as Smart?

3. That hardware support is limited, I have an IBM t60 with an intel proc and an integrated ATI X1300 video card. Is there any known issues?

4. That installing ARCH is a real BLANK. Is that true? If so does someone have an easy to follow set of install instructions I can print out?

5. Tips?, advice?, extras?

Thanks

brebs · 2008-03-10 03:39:54

I'd say that Arch is a good choice for you. See installation guide.

Don't choose Gentoo - it's too easy for newbies to mess up the system to the point where a complete reinstallation is the least painful option.

Allan · 2008-03-10 03:40:30

1. If you are prepared to learn and can follow instructions then it is not a problem that you are a newbie. Learn to seach the wiki and forums for a wealth of information. We are a friendly bunch and questions usually get answered pretty fast on the forums.

2. pacman is easy to use. Want a Gnome desktop, then "pacman -S gnome". Want to update, "pacman -Syu". There are a couple of graphical frontends out there but I'm not sure of their current status.

3. Hardware support is about as good as anywhere else. Just not really old processors.

4. Look at the "Beginners Guide" on the wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide). That should get you going.

5. Just go for it!

Welcome to Arch.

fwojciec · 2008-03-10 03:44:03

First of all -- if you thinking of installing Arch this guide in particular and wiki are going to be indispensable resources. That should take care of question 4... Recommendation to use these resources would be my answer to number 5.

Question 1 -- when I started with Arch I had only recently (less than 2 months earlier) made the switch from Windows so I was definitely a noob. I felt welcome... and while I'm at it -- welcome to Arch

Question 2 -- I'm not the best person to ask about gui frontends to pacman because I never felt like I needed one; regardless, one of the great advantages of Arch, IMO, is how easy it is to add new programs and to manage what's already installed using pacman and perhaps also something like yaourt (to make installing things from AUR easier.)

Question 3 -- In my experience Arch is as good as it gets in terms of hardware compatibility. Because it is a rolling distro and because it is constantly up to date whatever can be made to work in Linux can be generally made to work in Arch -- using standard procedures. Arch will not try to autodetect and autoconfigure things for you though, which I consider a good thing, since learning how to configure your hardware manually works out better in the long run (you're not at the mercy of eternally imperfect automatisms).

Last edited by fwojciec (2008-03-10 03:46:44)

skottish · 2008-03-10 03:45:05

Welcome to the forums.

1) All are welcome. There are two guides in the wiki, The beginner's guide and the official installation guide. They're both good. Start with the beginner's guide.

2) There's no official GUI package tool, but there are several in user space. But, the CLI is easy and extremely powerful. It's much more robust than Smart. The wiki entry and the man pages for pacman are both very good.

3) I know nothing of ATI cards, so I can't help there. But somewhere around here (forum or wiki) is a laptop thread that probably covers you model if you need help.

4) Arch is as easy to install as you are as following instructions. Given your first post, I think that you'll do well.

5) Arch is a great distro with an awesome community. Check the wiki and use the search function here first, if you cannot get an answer to your question, there will be a high quality response very soon.

TechDragon · 2008-03-10 03:59:47

oh one more ? that has caused me tremendous AGRO with other distro. Dual monitor support, I have 2 19" monitors that I connect to my docking station. Ubuntu hardy heron, has no problems and give me two useable desktops, Mandriva only works in dual head mode, giving two independent monitors. Fedora I couldn't get it to do anything but clone.

Does Arch handle dual monitors well? I want it to use the two monitors when connected to the dock but revert back to the laptop screen when not docked.

skottish · 2008-03-10 04:15:19

TechDragon wrote:

Does Arch handle dual monitors well?

Of course. It takes a little effort to set up, but it really isn't difficult these days.

I want it to use the two monitors when connected to the dock but revert back to the laptop screen when not docked.

I've never done this, but it seems like this has been discussed recently. But honestly, if it can be done in Ubuntu, it can be done here. It's not going to be plug-and-play up front with Arch. When you're ready, simply post here on the forums and someone will guide you through.

mcmillan · 2008-03-10 05:33:49

Other's have mostly already said things I wanted to say, but I just want to chime in to say I have T60 though I have the intel graphics rather than ATI. I've heard in the past ATI's were a little more pain to get working, but it could have improved since then. The only issue I have is since the 2.6.23 kernel if I have the lid button set to turn off the screen rather than suspend it doesn't want to turn back on after opening until I restart the X server. There may be fixes for this out there, but I haven't bothered troubleshooting since I usually just suspend it anyway. Other than that my Arch runs great on my laptop.

The other point I'll make is that I think pacman is one of best package managers I've used, even if it doesn't have a gui. I've tried jacman and a couple other gui frontends that have been made, and really haven't felt like it was adding that much, since pacman is pretty straight forward to use on it's own. I have found yaourt to be useful though as a way to build things from the AUR.

lilsirecho · 2008-03-10 05:49:54

As you progress with archlinux, you will encounter a LIVE system developed from archlinux. It is called FaunOS and has Larch elements within it, each LIve system contributing to the FaunOS.

The pacman GUI you seek is inherent in FaunOS and is called PACTRAC. It lists all installed packages and all installable packages.

This can be a future option for you, archlinux is a good start.

Sigi · 2008-03-10 06:26:21

lilsirecho wrote:

As you progress with archlinux, you will encounter a LIVE system developed from archlinux. It is called FaunOS and has Larch elements within it, each LIve system contributing to the FaunOS.
The pacman GUI you seek is inherent in FaunOS and is called PACTRAC. It lists all installed packages and all installable packages.
This can be a future option for you, archlinux is a good start.

I think I disagree on that one. Arch is a good start, this is out of question. But I don't really see FaunOS as a "future option" after he used arch for some time. Raymano and others have done great work on creating live systems, live scripts, etc. They're great to try out arch. But I still see arch as the real distro to use and those live systems as the try-out-and-install medium or the carry your arch installation on your usb-stick option. I hope you get my point on this one, this isn't meant offensive in any way. I just want to point out that it would probably be easier the other way around - play around with faunOS and then install arch. But this are just my 2 cents on this one...

aantipop · 2008-03-22 09:35:08

gui for pacman: check out "shaman"
http://kdemod.ath.cx/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=502

blu3ness · 2008-03-22 22:26:55

Ati are hard to get it working, but are definitely workable, I have radeon xpress200m on my laptop and it was not too bad at all... So yeah, definitely workable, just might involve a bit of hassle.

bender02 · 2008-03-22 23:12:02

For learning purposes, I'd stay away from any gui frontend for pacman, or any configuration related matters. Editing textfiles gives you much more insight on what is going on (well, at least that's the way for me).

dunc4n · 2008-03-23 04:52:02

Welcome. I'd suggest only using the core, and following the wiki. Learn the basics of pacman/yaourt. I have no doubt you won't be able to learn/use and love this fabulous distro.

Leigh · 2008-03-23 11:56:57

Welcome to Arch. I think all your questions have all been answered, and I think you found a great distro and community. Dual monitors shouldn't a problem, but can take a little effort, mosyly getting the xorg.conf file just right. I'm currently running three monitors as independent screens with no trouble, but it did take some research and tweaking. As problems arise, I'm sure the forums and wiki will help you out.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-10 03:20:23

a welcome newcomer?

#2 2008-03-10 03:39:54

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#3 2008-03-10 03:40:30

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#4 2008-03-10 03:44:03

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#5 2008-03-10 03:45:05

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#6 2008-03-10 03:59:47

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#7 2008-03-10 04:15:19

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#8 2008-03-10 05:33:49

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#9 2008-03-10 05:49:54

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#10 2008-03-10 06:26:21

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#11 2008-03-22 09:35:08

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#12 2008-03-22 22:26:55

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#13 2008-03-22 23:12:02

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#14 2008-03-23 04:52:02

Re: a welcome newcomer?

#15 2008-03-23 11:56:57

Re: a welcome newcomer?

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