Last hurdle ... community activity?

dhave · 2008-07-04 09:09:13

I've been running a test installation of Arch64 for a couple of weeks now, and I'm satisfied that it's a viable system. I've been especially pleased with the frequency of Arch64 package updates. There's very little difference between package maintenance on Arch64 vs. Arch32. In fact, as I write this, of the 15 package updates listed on the ArchLinux home page, nine of them are for Arch64.

Now this one last question: How about community support? I've had no trouble getting excellent advice in my visits to this forum section, but I do notice that the level of activity in the Arch64 section is below that of other forum sections.

That could be because many issues that Arch64 users encounter are not specific to Arch64 but are being handled in the other Arch forum sections. That's actually probably a good sign, since it means that there aren't dozens of people out there with broken Arch64 setups, or at least with their systems broken because they're running Arch64 and not Arch32.

Or it could mean that there aren't really many people using Arch64, at least not compared with Arch's general population. Arch genpop (learned this term from watching "Prison Break") is an extremely active community, judging not only by the volume of messages in most all forum sections, but also by the fact that 42 people just applied to be considered for a handful of developer slots. That's a very healthy sign.

Since I can't really tell by forum activity alone, can some of you give me your impression of the strength of the Arch64 community? Growing fast? New people coming on board but plenty of veterans on hand? Or is it just a few hot shots, risk-takers, fearless geeks, and lonely boys? (I say this with affection.)

Thanks.

Last edited by dhave (2008-07-04 09:14:45)

alcafar · 2008-07-04 10:10:19

dhave wrote:

That could be because many issues that Arch64 users encounter are not specific to Arch64 but are being handled in the other Arch forum sections.

That's it, go for Arch64 without fear
It work flawlessly for open source software. You'll miss some closed source software (flash, java runtime environment, very few binary codecs, skype, google earth), but you can solve the problem with a chroot
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … bit_system

A lot of people use Arch64
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=25851

ST.x · 2008-07-05 10:16:22

alcafar wrote:

dhave wrote:
That could be because many issues that Arch64 users encounter are not specific to Arch64 but are being handled in the other Arch forum sections.
That's it, go for Arch64 without fear
It work flawlessly for open source software. You'll miss some closed source software (flash, java runtime environment, very few binary codecs, skype, google earth), but you can solve the problem with a chroot
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … bit_system
A lot of people use Arch64
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=25851

For java there is icedtea6, flash - nspluginwrapper + nspluginwrapper-flash (flash10 beta 2 is also out) and there's a bin32 for google earth all from aur.

dhave · 2008-07-05 13:27:55

I've done it now. My Arch32 installation is archived away, and I'm wholly committed to Arch64 now. When I finished the installation (easy peasy, by the way), I announced the good news to my wife: "I've changed my Linux setup to 64 bits!" Her reply: "Huh?"

I guess she just doesn't feel it the way I do.

Though during my two-week test phase of Arch64 I just added lib32 libraries as needed, this time I went with a "bundled" Arch32 mini-installation in /opt/arch32, following this guide in the wiki. (Who wrote this, by the way? It's very well done.)

This "bundled" approach is working fine for Adobe Reader and Wine (Crossover Office, actually), although I didn't manage to get VMware workstation installed. The stock 64-bit installation file of VMware actually requires a couple of 32-bit libraries (I would have though VMware would have done better). But it's enough of a hybrid that it wouldn't install under the bundled Arch32, either. Nor would the stock 32-bit installation file. So I finally had to compromise and install the so-called 64-bit installation file on my Arch64 and add two measly 32-bit libraries. I didn't like doing this, since I wanted to have a pure 64-bit system, but that's the only way I could manage.

Later, if I have more time, I might try again to install VMware under the bundled Arch32.

Thanks for the encouragement to go with Arch64. I'm already looking forward to Arch128.

nielsb · 2008-07-07 06:36:57

Hi Dave,

Just thought that I - as a new Arch64 user to another - should say hi!!

As for your VMWare problems; on other distro's you had to install the ia32 libs - are those the same as the one you mention? If not, it might be worth looking at what they consist of if you want to run VMWare "natively" I used to run VMWare, but became disappointed with their - IMHO - poor (compared to their Windows product) Linux implementaton, so I'm now running VirtualBox, which - again IMHO - runs rings around VMWare.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-04 09:09:13

Last hurdle ... community activity?

#2 2008-07-04 10:10:19

Re: Last hurdle ... community activity?

#3 2008-07-05 10:16:22

Re: Last hurdle ... community activity?

#4 2008-07-05 13:27:55

Re: Last hurdle ... community activity?

#5 2008-07-07 06:36:57

Re: Last hurdle ... community activity?

Board footer