The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

schuz0r · 2010-10-27 09:09:03

Just installed on my netbook and have been quite pleased.

zainin · 2010-10-27 19:45:30

Yeah. Rolling release. No crappy autoconfigs. KISS. That's it.

hsan · 2010-10-30 12:19:28

Yes, Arch is indeed the best!

Rolling release, always up-to-date, simplicity, no braindead sysvinit, fully customizable and bringing together the best of source based and binary based distros. Pacman is an awesome package manager, ABS just rocks and the AUR... well, I would say the AUR is a perfect example of how to do community contributions the Right Way.

Keep up the good work!

aviad · 2010-11-11 11:43:13

Iv'e just checked my registration date to the forums, this has just blown my mind -
Almost five years now with arch. amazing. More amazing is that I'm actually still with my original install (was 0.7.6, I think) - during those five years I've moved my arch install to 3 new computers, god knows how many times I've moved it across hard drives - still running and kicking in my home.

In the meantime, Iv'e actually got my very first job in IT a couple of months ago. already managed to pimp Arch to several of my work colleagues. Also, basically anywhere where we don't need a critical RHEL server, I now install Arch. on some workstations, internal wiki web-servers, testing servers, etc... Fast deployment, simple configuration, powerful package manager, quite bleeding edge yet still very stable - all of these are a perfect combo for a testing environment.

So thank you Arch and more specifically - arch developers and maintainers, you are all amazing.

Last edited by aviad (2010-11-11 11:45:12)

tum · 2010-11-12 21:32:04

I use Arch Linux since September 2009 and i would like to thank archlinux team for a great job !

Sabayn · 2010-11-12 23:45:00

For the past several months, I've been hopping between Arch, Chakra, Gentoo, Sabayon, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat, Mint, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, and Ultimate edition.

In the end, I have concluded that the advantages of Arch outweigh the advantages of every single other distro. Gentoo came close, but I think that having binaries available is nicer than having USE flags available.

Long live Arch!

manzdagratiano · 2010-11-14 01:22:19

I would call Arch "the middle path" - I love the sheer elegance in its implementation, and the principle about learning all the innards of the system. It is in simplicity that lies the solution to all problems - if there is a problem, you understand exactly why and you fix it! I would even go so far as to say that Arch is what something like Gentoo would have wanted to be; the idea there was to know everything about the system and optimize it, and it does work to some extent, but I find it too painful - I do not wish to sit and wait for two hours gaping at it compile away when I just want to install emacs on my system and write some code!
I also love Ubuntu because it seems to get the system working from the start - but the one thing from Arch I miss there is that if something is wrong and not in a good way, in Arch the path to fixing it is straightforward, while there it may be bumpy, as it oft has been in the past. I started out with Ubuntu on the machine and installed Debian, Arch, Gentoo and Slackware on virtual machines... while I had fun with all of them, Arch was so phenomenal I just HAD to install it to dual boot with Ubuntu... I am pretty surprised that DistroWatch does not yet list Arch at the very top, for in terms of architecture it is unique and breathtakingly elegant! - I am sure it shall soon though!

hunterm · 2010-12-13 04:29:59

At first I used Ubuntu.
Then Debian.
Then Slackware.
Now, Arch.

Arch is my absolute favorite distro. I have never had this much fun, learning about Linux, managing a system, and maintaining a server. There's so much more to do with it than with Ubuntu, I can make this system do WHATEVER I WANT! I mean, the first time I installed Arch, I felt like I was a master. Now I know that was just the beginning. I've learned so much about Arch, Linux in general, and a whole lot of other stuff.

I AM A MASTER!

:]

Majki · 2010-12-21 15:13:49

Less stupid common bugs, more smart custom solutions - that's Arch Linux.

DKnight · 2010-12-24 02:00:10

I just wanted to drop by to say that I also love this distro. I love it a lot.

I've been a Linux user since... Red Hat Linux 5, I think?. I still remember fondly that ugly 640x480x8bit desktop (no video drivers for my card) with Netscape over 56k and XMMS playing the mp3s from my read only win95 partition. It was barely usable as a desktop, but seeing it running felt really rewarding, even though RHL was easy to setup and I didn't really like it much.

I had been hopping back and forth from Linux to Windows since then, trying distros and stuff; then Ubuntu came, and it made me use Linux much, much more thanks to its usability and huge community. I've been using it a lot.
But it also made me forget why Linux distributions are so much fun. At the end of the day, Ubuntu it's a lot like Windows; a huge premade package that just works, a product. You slap it into your computer and use it, jumping through the hoops the developers set for you (don't get me wrong, I like Ubuntu and I think it's a very good distro that should keep doing what it's doing). That's fine if you just want to use your computer only as a means to an end. But if you love computers and software in general, there's no fun in that..

The Arch Linux approach on the other hand is awesome. It's like having a toolbox and a lot of pieces, and tons of guides and people to help you build whatever you want with them. Linux has always been like that, but Arch makes it accessible and well organised. It gives you a lot of freedom, and isn't that what free software is about, after all?
This kind of post should always have a far fetched car analogy for some odd reason, so here it is; it's like the difference between driving a car, and building a car with your own hands and driving it. It's not like any of us has ever built a car, but it sounds awesome, doesn't it?

This kind of approach also makes everything run fast and clean, with less problems. Arch has it right; simplifying is not about hiding and automatizing things, doing that actually makes everything grow more complex and rigid under a fragile cask. Having control and getting dirty means you can get everything working exactly as you want with a few precise keystrokes.
The setup seemed daunting at first, but it was actually very easy and everything worked right off the bat, just a few pacmans and everything was up and running. 0 problems, all trouble I had was looking up how to do stuff I wanted to do, which only required a bit of wiki,forums and manuals.

Damn, long post. Sorry for rambling too much, thanks for this distro, and keep it up.

Crazyiom · 2010-12-24 12:02:11

I used Windows, basically for my whole life without some hates which were mainly the customizing Windows was a pain (WinBlinds just to change the theme). I then got told about Linux Mint and installed then I moved up to Ubuntu (and still partially use it). But I wanted to know more about linux other then the obvious things you pick up when tweaking Ubuntu so I thought I would try Arch Linux, I have only used it for a couple of days and I love it. And would happily recommend Arch Linux over Ubuntu (if the user knew how to install it, Of course).

In conclusion, Arch Linux is amazing. And the use of "pacman" to update, reminds me of my childhood playing pacman.

Whip · 2010-12-27 20:56:57

Arch Linux is, by far, the best distribution of Linux I've used.

Prior to using Linux, I'd used Windows as my operating system since I was young. Windows 95, 98, XP, and Vista were among the versions of Windows I had owned and operated. I began to pick up programming a few years back, primarily Python, PHP, and a little Ruby and I became more acquainted with *nix-based operating systems. Early this year (around May) I scrapped my Vista install in favor of Ubuntu, which I continued to use for several months. I didn't always like the auto-configuration, as sometimes it did the job incorrectly and I'd need to fix it. Before I switched to Arch three months ago, I'd also tried Debian (testing) and Fedora for a few weeks. There were parts from each distro that I wanted to keep (APT and the number of packages in Ubuntu/Debian, the newness yet relative stability of packages in Fedora, etc), while some parts I disliked.

While I was using yum (disliked yum very much) to update Fedora, I remembered a friend who had mentioned that his favorite distro was Arch Linux. I figured I'd give it a shot, and haven't looked back since. It contains the advantages I've seen in the other distributions, as well as some that I hadn't seen in the others, such as a focus on simplicity, lack of auto-configuration in favor of sane defaults, and a community in the form of AUR, these forums, and the wiki.

Arch is my favorite distro, hands down. It may not have the popularity of Ubuntu, Debian, or Fedora, however it does have the best design and community, in my opinion, and suits my needs well.

Last edited by Whip (2010-12-27 21:00:05)

karabaja4 · 2010-12-27 21:41:03

Quote copied from other thread:

louipc wrote:

You won't be able to tolerate any other distro after using Arch.

After playing with Ubuntu for a day (nevermind the reason), I realized just how true this sentence is.

Long live Arch!

splashy · 2010-12-28 14:20:17

Amazing Arch is increadible! First it's increase my knowledge in computers with this "total" installations and those configurations files who still simple but intelligent, this perfect wiki, and secondly I love this system package! For instance I'm now using Kde 4.6 rc1 and it's stable... WTF kde in non stable version who still stable in this sytem! The system is fast and denote to our likes.
Eventually I can't help thinking that we have here the "perfect" file packager, AUR is unbelievable, it's just like a dream: you want a software: you find it!
Like the other repository(extra testing kde-unstable...) pacman is perfect and yaourt made installations more fun^^.
Ubuntu is for noob, Archlinux if for middleman users and reward them for read wiki!

cavallino · 2010-12-31 01:10:33

I am a recent convert to Arch. I have been using windows since sometime around windows 3.1 but I decided to try Linux a few months ago and was immediately hooked. I now use Linux for everything other than games, adobe apps and itunes. I began with Ubuntu, on an old machine and quickly loaded Linux variants on my Desktop and Netbook. My goal was always to have the same system on both which proved difficult as heavier distros were nice on my fancy desktop but horrible on my netbook. I began trying everything: Mint 9 (xfce,lxde,fluxbox,kde,gnome), mint debian ubuntu, kubuntu, xubuntu, lubunut, opensuse (kept this one for a while), Sabayon, various versions of PClinuxOS and probably more I'm forgetting. I knew about Arch but I assumed it would be to difficult for a noob like myself. I eventually migrated to crunchbang on my netbook and found out about archbang, which I thought would give me an intro into the arch experience. I had some issue with the installer and I eventually gave up and began a real arch install. I followed the guide closely and had 0 problems and learned a lot on the way. I now feel I have a much better understanding of how Linux works and Arch is second to none in terms of and documentation. Although many things may require more work, than say Ubuntu the wiki and forum make it much easier to find a fix for almost any issue. Additionally it is the quickest and most stable of all the distro I've tried. After a good 6 months of weekly distro hopping I see no reason to go further.

dcbdbis · 2011-01-03 10:29:22

I'm an old guy. Old military veteran from the Vietnam era.

I've been using linux since it was installed by 1.44 floppies. Of course, there was Windows too. And Arch in the ~0.7 days.

Over the years my work has taken me through a lot of distro's, and a lot of customized kernels (I did embedded work).

There are a lot of things to be said about the strengths and weaknesses of various distro's. And many of my customers were neophytes. So a lot of work with the Red Hat's, SuSe (pre-Novell), and then along came Ubuntu, Mint, etc, aud-nauseum.

It was really a refreshing experience for me this evening to go live with Arch once again.

The early days of Arch sometimes were sometimes painful, especially when an update caused catastrophic disruption. It's really gratifying to see the platform mature like it has.
I don't expect a perfect distro that will forever remain glitchless.... It's not possible. I still develop in C++, and in the height of my career.....my own code had it's share of issues and service releases! Things are just too complex in today's world.

But....I do recognize excellence when I see it...... And I see it in this distribution.

What Judd started, and Aaron grew, really has matured. Just curious, I know Judd has long since graduated and is in the workforce. Is Aaron still at the helm though? Or is today's Arch steered by a comittee or something like that?

Now that I'm retired (disabled actually)...I've had Arch in a VM for about two months now, alongside about 8 other top distro's. All of it reviewing the fit of a distro for me to use on my new projects until it's time for me to croak-off. I used the VM showdown as I had to prove to myself that after my health issues (strokes) that I could maintain my own system without hosing it.

For me now, Arch is the perfect balance of automation, and "getting your hands dirty". There is a need for me to get my hands dirty once in a while to maintain and rebuild some of what the stroke took away. But, I'm not in a position, nor do I any longer have the desire to maintain Gentoo. I'm a stage #1 gentoo vet.....Stage #1's aren't being offered anymore. Gentoo and LFS are just too painful for me with my current health situation.

Arch is perfect. For me, tonight was like an old homecoming, like returning to an old friend. I was surprised how quickly I remembered the pacman parameters....

Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have, until we don't have it. Work forced me to the RedHat's and the SuSe's of the world, etc....Now, no longer in the workforce...I can choose for myself again.

I must say I am impressed with how far Arch has come, and want to say T H A N K Y O U to the developers and volunteers who maintain Arch. Tonight, I went live from a VM, and from zippo to a fully fleshed out Cad/Cam workstation in a matter of a few hours. I mean spit and polish too. My fonts, my backgrounds, my backup's restored, etc.....

In today's world....and in the society where I live.....people piss and moan a lot, and then tantrum when they don't get what they want, or flame someone outof immaturity....As my customers did to me all too often.

We are the beneficiaries of hard work by unpaid volunteers. We the community do not show that appreciation enough, and do not say ' thank you' nearly enough. Rather, many of us bicker and whine way too much.

Here is my $0.02: To the Arch developers, maintainers, and volunteers....... THANK YOU! Your hard work is surely appreciated by me.

Thank You again, and lets maintain the integrity of the good work.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Dave

litemotiv · 2011-01-03 11:08:10

Thanks for your words of praise Dave, your thread has been merged with the official "Arch is Best" thread.

Leigh · 2011-01-06 01:13:44

Hey everybody. What Dave wrote up there is my feelings as well. Been away for about a year. Life gets busy at times. about six months ago I purchased a system 76 machine with Ubuntu pre-installed on it. Before this new system, I used Arch starting back in the 0.7 days, and like Dave said, it wasn't perfect but just kept getting better. Back to my new system. At first, I was impressed with the ubuntu lucid os it came with. everything just worked, but with so many things deeply intigrated in it, makes it frustrating as hell to configure the way i want. It came with gnome on it, one of my least fav DE/wm's but i tried to see if i could get use to it. Pretty much had enough of it. just too bloated for my taste. Tried out the kde3 Trinity and it seems promising, but feels like riding a dead horse at times, Last weekend I couldn't take in any longer an installed Arch. It so refreshing to be back! I remember back in 04 when I found it by some fluke as it was not very well known distro. Now it's near top of distro watch. Wow!. It's really great to have a familiar linux back on my system! Hands down best linux experience, at least for me, and I've tried quite a few. Use to love kde3 on Arch, was light enough for a fast system, and fairly rock solid. kde4 for me totally went off the deep end with bells and whistles. For me, Arch + Fluxbox on a recent system is like lightening and so freaking kick @ss! Pacman, fake root, build scripts, impressive wiki, and aur.. truley perfect for someone wanting a customized system!

I to want to thank the developers! Thank You!! You guyz so rawk! <3

Happy Camper,

Leigh

sumindless · 2011-01-10 07:52:18

I finally installed Arch for the first time yesterday. I'd been wanting to check it out for a while, especially since I'd been using Ubuntu and Windows 7. I really felt the need to get down and dirty and get back to what I love about Linux: having complete control over your workspace. Gentoo was great at this as well, but compiling all that software became a burden. I truely am blown away and the only thing I have to complain about is the fact that I didn't try the distro of my dreams sooner!

welpert · 2011-01-12 13:03:28

WOOHOO i love Arch! Finally a non-bloated yet friendly linux!

ngoonee · 2011-01-12 14:11:32

welpert wrote:

WOOHOO i love Arch! Finally a non-bloated yet friendly linux!

I just saw your last 2 posts, please do not power-post.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … mpty_Posts

welpert · 2011-01-12 14:29:56

ngoonee wrote:

welpert wrote:
WOOHOO i love Arch! Finally a non-bloated yet friendly linux!
I just saw your last 2 posts, please do not power-post.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … mpty_Posts

Understood, although looking at my other posts, seems a bit strange that you'd say that (isn't this a Arch is Best topic? Doesn't my short, effective comment really say it all?).. Well maybe I'll just have to curb my enthusiasm.

Have a good day!

Thor@Flanders · 2011-01-13 18:37:16

Okay, this IS the off-topic section, innit?

So, here goes:

Thanks to the makers, maintainers and everyone else involved in Arch!! This is a GREAT OS!

Thumbs up

I just survived a system crash, did a repair and got the "Lady" back in the saddle! Try that on the "other" one...

Phew! Again, a big note of thanks!

Thor
Edit : this shows the HUMAN side of Linux, and ya wonder why I made the move to Linux and away from windows?

# Moved to the Unofficial "Arch is Best" Thread

Last edited by jasonwryan (2011-01-13 20:13:08)

Captain Dunce · 2011-01-14 05:41:23

As a recent convert to Arch I just want to say how grateful I am for the people who made this project happen. I first messed with Linux on Red Hat 5.? oh so many years ago and unfortunately at the time did not have the patience or motivation to learn a new system. Well just a few months back I was bored and fed up with Win7 so thought I'd jump back into the Linux pool and all I can say is boy o' boy the water is just right. After a month or so with Ubuntu I became self conscious in regards to using what seemed to be the "idiot distro". Thankfully I found and tried Arch. In just a few hours spent installing and configuring my system I feel like I was forced to learn more about Linux than I EVER would have using Ubuntu. Sure Ubuntu has an easier install and everything was nice and pretty without any input from me, but I didn't really learn anything. Training wheels are necessary but they need to come off when the time is right. Once again, thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to Arch--may things only get better from here.

convict · 2011-01-14 06:49:53

Installed Arch on a 10-or-so years old P3 machine (256MB RAM). I had no idea I could run a modern OS full-time without having to compromise any functionality at all on an ancient machine. It runs even "heavyweight" programs (Firefox, LibreOffice, GIMP) just fine, no reason to look for "lightweight alternatives" just so that this old thing could keep up.

I remember I tried Ubuntu on the same machine several years back (I think it was 7.04 ir 7.10) and it was unbelievably sluggish, it didn't actually perform any better than XP... which I thought was disappointing because all the Linux fans always went on about it being so lightweight and fast. But they turned out to be right

Arch Linux

#501 2010-10-27 09:09:03

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#502 2010-10-27 19:45:30

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#503 2010-10-30 12:19:28

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#504 2010-11-11 11:43:13

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#505 2010-11-12 21:32:04

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#506 2010-11-12 23:45:00

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#507 2010-11-14 01:22:19

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#508 2010-12-13 04:29:59

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#509 2010-12-21 15:13:49

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#510 2010-12-24 02:00:10

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#511 2010-12-24 12:02:11

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#512 2010-12-27 20:56:57

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#513 2010-12-27 21:41:03

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#514 2010-12-28 14:20:17

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#515 2010-12-31 01:10:33

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#516 2011-01-03 10:29:22

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#517 2011-01-03 11:08:10

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#518 2011-01-06 01:13:44

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#519 2011-01-10 07:52:18

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#520 2011-01-12 13:03:28

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#521 2011-01-12 14:11:32

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#522 2011-01-12 14:29:56

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#523 2011-01-13 18:37:16

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#524 2011-01-14 05:41:23

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#525 2011-01-14 06:49:53

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

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