The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

random_traveller · 2009-11-16 05:22:37

Well, I just switched my laptop over to Arch today.

My thoughts:
* The helpful wiki guide made installation simply child's play.
* The configuration was extremely easy.
* Installing packages was a breeze.
* I've got a fairly slick system up and running with fluxbox and all my usual apps, and no bloat.

Anyways, that's my brief Arch success story. I'll probably be using it for a while, unless something horrible and unforseen occurs.

jocheem67 · 2009-11-19 17:47:45

Here's a convert from Ubuntu..been using that one from 2006 ( I think it was still Dapper ). I guess I needed to use something that was a bit more configurable by design..surely Ubuntu is as "playable" as Arch when you look for it, whereas Arch kind of asks you a bit more for it.

Really like Arch up 'till now. Very slick.

I don't see myself using another distro the coming period. However, as many, at a certain point there will be the urge to throw myself in something new again ( like Gentoo, which might be the next logical step:D )

The wiki is the best informational source one can get!

Didn't need to use the forum yet ( using three boxes with Arch ). However I'm pretty confident that with whatever problem that will emerge, I'll be happy with the help being offered..

Heads up!

axel668 · 2009-11-19 18:03:16

could not agree more !
in the few weeks using Arch I learned more about Linux than in 2 years of Ubuntu. and it's much more stable, too, btw
using Arch with KDE4 desktop and firefox.

anonymous_user · 2009-11-19 18:10:21

Ahhh, Arch, how I love thee. Let me count the ways:

1. It is rolling release so I (should) never need to format.
2. It has the latest packages and software.
3. The wiki almost always has the information/help Im looking for.
4. It is minimal.
5. There is the AUR for when a package is not in the main repos.

Matthew T. · 2009-11-19 21:57:08

I've been using Arch for a little more than a week on a cheap, low-powered Toshiba laptop. It amuses me when I start my little lappy at the same time as my wife's Vista machine. Arch boots up and provides me with a usable desktop while the Vista laptop (with twice the processor speed and 1.5x the RAM that my lappy has) is still chugging toward a log-in.

Even though I'm at the low end of the learning curve (on the beginning side), I appreciate the way that Arch doesn't jack with applications to put its own spin or brand on them - I really hate what Xubuntu had done with xfce.

I always wanted to try Arch but was intimidated by the complexity of it. When I couldn't get my cooling fan working properly under Ubuntu 9.10, I figured I had nothing to lose. Gotta love the beginners handbook.

Franz Kafka · 2009-11-20 19:44:32

I've been using Arch for a few months now on my netbook, and I have to say I'm very impressed. I run Gnome and eclipse and other "heavyweight apps," but it still seems to run faster than windows XP, and I get at least as much battery life. At first I thought Arch would be too much work to maintain to use for school everyday, but since I initially configured everything after install, I pretty much just run a pacman -Syu once a week and everything is fine. If you actually do have a problem, the wiki and forums are almost guaranteed to have some relevant information. A big annoyance I've had with other distros is how out of date their packages are, but with Arch this is no problem. The AUR rocks! For open source software which gets updated really often, the rolling release model makes much more sense.

So, in conclusion, Arch rocks, it is the best linux distro I've used. It's awesome in terms of being up to date and customization. Thank you to all the developers and maintainers who keep Arch going. Keep it up!

chocolatl56 · 2009-11-30 00:16:01

Arch is great! My fellow forum users and the admins are very helpful (kudos to you all). The wiki is uncluttered and easy to find the info you need. And, of course, the distro is amazing! Thank you arch devs!

Mad Fish · 2009-12-03 18:14:58

I'm posting here just to put more love, peace and software freedom into this thread.

Rolling release + prebuilt packages + simplicity = just the best, nothing to add.

tinhtruong · 2009-12-04 15:30:44

Arch is the distro with the best wiki I've ever seen!

horgh · 2009-12-04 19:16:29

I've been using Linux for more than ten years now, I think I've tried almost every distro there is. Mostly I've used Gentoo now. Now I found this Arch, of course I've known that it is there, but never had time to try it. I feel like I've found a home for myself. I had Ubuntu on this old Toshiba laptop (Satellite A-10), then came Karmic Koala, after update nothing worked, so I thought, that anyway I'll have to reinstall from cratch, so I could try something new. It took some hours to install and configure, but it's done and I'm a very happy user. Everything is fast, even on this laptop. I believe that I could get system this fast also with Gentoo, but I don't want to wait for packages compiling, it's an old laptop, compiling takes too much time.

I've been having problems with randomly crashing X, but that is because of Intel drivers and my graphics card. Now even this seems to be fixed with newest Intel drivers from AUR. Any other little problem I've had, I've always found help from wiki or these forums. Thank you for great and helpful community.

rivanvx · 2009-12-05 09:22:23

I'm a big fan of both Fedora and Debian, and I still think those two are the best distribution out there overall, each in it's own domain.

However, Arch is the only distribution that packages TeX Live 2009. I'm pretty certain that 99% of your users don't give a damn either way (and probably wouldn't notice that TeX Live is missing either), but it matters to me so much that I made a switch at my machine at work.

Debian was indeed first distribution to ever have TeX Live in repos (it was back in 2005), but Arch was first to have packaged TeX Live 2009 that works.

Thank you.

handy · 2009-12-10 12:27:00

I haven't posed (oops I meant posted ) in this thread for a long time; not since my initial blood rush of newbie enthusiasm for Arch had worn off.

I'm posting now to say that after 21 months of using the same Arch install; which has of course gone through changes, from Gnome to Openbox, to Xfce, back to Openbox, where it has remained.

A theme was found & tweaked, (boy don't we look forward to that being made quick & easy?).

Over the months of using Arch I've made a variety of changes with regard to the applications & tools that I use to handle a variety of file types; these days most are handled so very easily via Worker, which is a very mature directory utility inspired by Jonathan Potter's "Directory Opus" (DOpus), I was obviously an Amiga man .

Anyway, I am only adding this submission to say that I can't possibly imagine using any system on a computer that could be more agreeable than Arch Linux.

As time goes by, the nature of Arch forces its user to make the user environment as comfortable as possible. After nearly 2 years, (apart from the ATi GPU support problems, which are soon to be over & done with thanks to the open-source teams hard work) I can't imagine an easier computer system for allowing the user to make his computer using environment more comfortable, or easier to keep that way.

There have been occasional problems that have come down from upstream, but once the ability to downgrade is learned, there really is so very little that can stuff up an Arch system. Fortunately solutions always quickly manifest on the Arch forum.

I offer my thanks to ALL of the people that are responsible for creating & maintaining this magnificent system called Arch Linux, & to the all of the very thoughtful people who have created & also maintain the Arch wiki, which is all but perfect.

Last edited by handy (2009-12-10 12:52:35)

saharchie · 2009-12-13 21:34:57

greetings arch community

i've been using arch for a awhile and hands down it is the best ... every day i spend working on other OSes only makes me appreciate arch that much more.

thank you everyones who have made arch what it is.

Last edited by saharchie (2009-12-19 07:08:05)

prosparky · 2009-12-26 00:03:17

I am new to Arch, but I have been using Linux on my system for about 4 years now. I've been through ALL the major distros, and a few less known ones. I learned a lot when configuring Arch, and almost gave up a few times. I'm glad I didn't. This distro is a "keeper" !!
You guys have the best documentation, wiki, and forums available. Thank you for all the hard work.

spidernik84 · 2009-12-26 14:11:26

Ok, hello everybody, let me start with this first post of mine, i just registered and is definitely the first step.
First of all: great. I mean, yes, maybe i'm being carried away by enthusiasm, but this is how i feel at the moment i'm writing.
I had a chance to try many mainstream and not-so-popular distributions, from the prepackaged, to the do everything by yourself, but with Arch i just feel... arrived, comfortable somehow.
You guys really managed to craft a great piece of project, putting together most of the best aspects of distributions all around the linux world.
You succeded in making a distribution that can be built from scratch, yet with easy to get and fast to install precompiled packages, in huge repos. A distro that can be shaped as you want, fast, yet stable as much as you make it to be. You made it customizable and capable of being great as other OSes in terms of Eye-candiness and beauty, or just stripped down and neat in its essence.
But what really makes this project great form the start is the "human" aspect of it (nothing related to Ubuntu ): the awesome community and the more than excellent wiki, capable of guiding you in a clear way through every aspect of the build-up, yet dense enough to lead the way in the specific aspects of the Operating System.

I really wish to thank everyone involved in this project, because i never, never felt so enthusiastic after trying a distro like how i did while trying Arch. Maybe i've been very lucky with my Acer Aspire One, maybe i was in a good mood because of Christmas time, who knows... but i'm just enjoying my very own distribution, and i'm just satisfied

scottbg1 · 2009-12-27 14:32:20

I have been fooling around with linux for about 1 1/2 years now. I have tried just about all the distros out there, and considered this to be a hobby more than anything, never really taking it seriously as I would windows......until now.

Because I viewed this as a hobby, I decided I wanted a big project. I wanted to build my own custom OS. I'm sure most of you remember the feeling you got the first time you booted up Arch for the first time and seeing only a comand line prompt staring back at you. Oh how I suddenly missed Fedora. But I trudged on into the unknown only to come out on the other side with tons more knowledge, and the fastest most stable linux distro I have ever experienced.

Arch just feels comfortable. It makes sense to me. And for the first time ever, I have seriously considered wiping Windows out of my life forever. If it wasn't for a few Digital imaging/video editing apps that I use frequently I would have done it already. (and yes I have tried wine but they will not work).

Even better is the Arch community and the wealth of knowledge that resides here. I have posted a couple of questions on the forums and read countless posts regarding issues I have had, and not once have I found anyone to be self serving or rude. Its the best move I have made so far in this venture.

Thanks to all.

CrashHarddrive · 2009-12-28 00:40:54

With the extreme diversity of Linux, I don't think it's possible to claim any distro as 'the best', Linux isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. But having tried dozens of different distros I have to say that Arch is the best I've found for my needs. My reason? Freedom, the same thing that drives a lot of Linux users. Think about this - there are 3 main options for a computer user (I siad 'main', so let's not go into the *BSD's and whatnot, OK?): Microsoft, Apple, or Linux. I refuse to touch Windows due to all the usual - bloat, bugs and viruses - but primarily because of DRM, EULA's and product activation. My computer is MINE, and no one has the right to say what I do with it but me. Apple is more open in that respect, but using Apple means buying into a walled garden where everything 'just works' only as long as everything is made by Apple. If you doubt that, try using an iPod with a Linux box. I sold my iPod and never looked back after Apple started pushing out firmware updates just to break functionality with non-Apple software and hardware. So that leaves Linux, and once again freedom was the reason I chose Arch. I was a happy Ubuntu user from Edgy Eft until recently, but I can't stay there any longer. Linux is neither fish nor fowl, neither Microsoft or Apple, but many Linux distros seem determined to be as Windows-like as possible, up to and including the bugs and bloat. I saw existing functionailty and useful features being sacrificed to the gods of eye candy and bling, and knew it was time to move on. Call me an elitist snob if you want, but I don't want to run the most popular distro in town, I want one that only has one limit - the limit of my skills. I haven't found ANYTHING I can't do with Arch, and I appreciate how rare that is, even in the Linux community.

bailchanis · 2010-01-05 18:33:45

Hi all,

I've been using linux-based OS for a few years nows (4) and spend some time on fedora then switched to gentoo which kept me happy if it was not for the time required for compiling everything.
I've switched to arch not so long ago and I'm happy I haven't left gentoo for a slower distrib, all thing considered you could even call it faster ^^ (equally fast-running but insanely faster to install ).

All in all, I would say that Arch is the gentoo of my dreams All of what I liked in gentoo is there in Arch (Rolling, total control over the wholesystem, great efficiency, etc ...) without the pain of taking ages to compile when it can be avoided !

In an odd way, I could thank pulseaudio which is the basic reason why I left fedora (*) and lead me to discover so much more benefits

much kudos to all arch devs and staff.
Keep up the good (perfect?) job !

(*) I dont need pa and I don't see the need coming too since since everything (mixer and all) works just perfect with alsa.

JezdziecBezNicka · 2010-01-07 14:15:51

Since I've had some adventures with Arch by now, I've decided to add to this thread. As a 2+ year Ubuntu user, I've come to a point where I did not want to wait 6 months for my apps to be upgraded and bugs fixed.

So I learned about rolling release and went Debian/Testing. But the packages still took quite long to update (and there were some other reasons, but that's not the point), and I didn't want to go Unstable, so I began looking for something else. Sidux, Gentoo and Arch grabbed my attention.

So here I am, not using Debian again (Sidux), not waiting for every package to compile (Gentoo), but having a wonderfully flexible system that lets me do whatever I like, the Arch way :)

But I would not have decided to get Arch if it wasn't for its brilliant wiki. I hope to contribute as soon as I get enough experience.

As long as Arch sticks to its ideals, there is no better distro for me.

Last edited by JezdziecBezNicka (2010-01-07 14:44:19)

Bender Unit #22 · 2010-01-11 19:12:02

Well, after couple of hours setting everything up to my liking i must say arch is great (after one day of using, though had some problems with kdemod-shaman so i am using pacman which is a great tool), not only it doesn't use as much CPU doing the same tasks as in openSUSE 11.2 but i also have the latest and greatest packages

I am not moving anywhere away, i was a distro hopper and was trying out most of them (Ubuntu till 8.04 (fed up with the direction they've taken, no changes at all maybe it's GNOME's fault? ), mint (a lot better than Ubuntu but i dislike GNOME), openSUSE 11.0 - 11.2, Fedora 10 - 12, didn't try gentoo (don't think all the hastle is worth the lost time).

As my previous "speaker" or "typer" i must say i love the KISS way of Arch Linux and must admit the wiki is also great.

P.S. Surprisingly the last submitter is also from cracow from Poland

tempo · 2010-01-14 05:56:52

install arch is such a painful thing !!! (NO PAIN NO GAIN A.A) smile
--> time-consuming
--> effort-consuming

but i think i get more than i give ^.^V , obtain:
~~
a very clean, (no unused, rubbish ... Apps)
unique, (my own-style)
Perfect OS

~~ lots of linux knowledge
~~ Endless Happy Time (WaKaKa........................) cool

(understanding to make up an "Linux Desktop Environment" from "command-line Environment" will do a lot of things,
so that more appreciate people create "user-friendly" Linux distro and thanks to them !!!)

P.S. Try Arch can lead you a lesson!

WA HA HA ............................. lol

binskipy2u · 2010-01-17 00:31:56

I'd like to thank everyone that I got help from on here, from what they responded and what I've read, and from a few members of Arch IRC channels in freenode.. I had a perfectly working Kubuntu.. but I wanted a rolling release so I wouldnt have to re-install again. after 12 tries over 2 months.. I had various problems, Xorg, keyboard , mouse wouldnt work, black screen, white screen, couldnt install this or that, or get it the way I wanted it.. so i googled and googled and searched the forums, and got different tutorials, shortcuts, and tips and tricks etc etc.. finally after trying so many times, I can install it without using the beginners/basic install guide.. and now i have a perfectly working kubuntu.. using all kubuntu/kde apps, along wtih firefox w/working flash, and the 5 windows pieces of software I enjoy the most.. so i'm VERY HAPPY..
just wanted to share

quickfished · 2010-01-19 07:29:41

I have been using Arch for almost two years now and only reinstalled to move to Arch64. So far, the experience has been wonderful and painfree. I'm quite a veteran computer user, not quite a programmer, but I have been dealing with computers in several roles in companies for almost two decades now. But only since I got to learn a few things about Linux, and especially since I got used to the Arch Way, I really enjoy using a computer again. Things got started a few years ago when I decided to buy a Mac, which I loved for the bling and beauty. But then I got comfortable with the Terminal and eventually I found myself doing almost everything in the console (mutt really was an eye-opener in that respect, in many ways) apart from web browsing. Things went fine until the hardware failed. A replacement would set me back quite a lot of cash again but then I considered that what I really needed was a Linux box; as I had basically been using a 2000 dollar glorified Linux box with an Apple logo.

I think there aren't many distro's I haven't tried at least once: SuSE, Debian, Red Hat, Mandriva - and also Slackware. Eventually, I got very cozy with Debian and later Ubuntu because it was the easiest distro around. Without experience, configuring a Linux box is not a walk in the park although I can't imagine now what is so difficult about it.
I used that for a about a year until it started to annoy me. I found myself upgrading to the next animal every 6 months, after which I would remove packages rather than installing additional ones and at one stage I remember removing a lot of packages I did not want or need (including Pulse) and breaking my system beyond repair. It's a bit of a paradox: as Ubuntu is dead easy to install, you most of the time just reinstall the whole thing without even try to fix whatever minor problem you may have. And I started to remind me of the Windows Way.

I read an article on Arch that was posted on Reddit. Decided to try it out and I must say, it took less than an hour to have a basic system running on my desktop. I must admit; since my Linux adoption, I don't just walk into any ol' shop to buy any ol' machine the way I used to but tend to standardize a little on what I think is Linux-friendly hardware. I have a Thinkpad X200 and I also assembled a desktop with a similar, Intel-based, config and just a bigger hard drive and more RAM.
It was like coming home. The wiki is truly awesome. After the distro hopping, I got exposed to so many choices I started desktop hopping, because Arch is just perfect to try them all, and as vanilla as they come: KDE4, Gnome, XFCE, also tried out Xmonad and Awesome and finally settled for a wonderful, powerful, simple, flexible, transparent, fast Openbox. No distractions and learning more new stuff every day. Hopefully one day I can return the favour in some way and contribute.

Last edited by quickfished (2010-01-19 07:32:22)

algorythm · 2010-01-23 19:17:45

Arch64 here and a hate against Ubuntu.

birdspider · 2010-01-26 13:16:51

Hi,
though my arch-comunitiy activity is very basic I decided to give some credit. I'm using arch on my server, netbook and desktop computer and for all of them it is working flawlessly and exactly as intended. Also 2 years ago I was the only one using arch around the people I know, but now I've got like 10 friends who I either "converted" or who discovered the arch way on their own. Its great to see how much fun (and a little bit of beginners trouble) they have with this distro.

So what I'm trying to say is probably thanks to all the people who use/care/improve this experience

!!THANKS!!

Arch Linux

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#418 2010-01-05 18:33:45

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#419 2010-01-07 14:15:51

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#421 2010-01-14 05:56:52

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