The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

jasonwryan · 2011-04-26 08:29:38

skjald wrote:

panicking when something broke, rejoicing when something worked...

Arch: never a boring moment...

fabriceb · 2011-05-13 11:08:01

I switched from gentoo to arch a few months ago. Gotta say, damn this is a nice distro. In fact, arch is the best desktop distro I've yet had the pleasure to use. It is: fast, very simple/easy to configure, lightweight, bleeding edge and has great community support and documentation. In fact it's similar to gentoo but suits my desktop needs better. For my servers, I still use gentoo.

So, in other words... Arch rocks. Thanks to everyone involved.

b9anders · 2011-05-14 08:49:43

I've been away from Linux for the past six months, because windows 7 was just so damn usable, especially with the thinkpad tools from Lenovo, I couldn't be bothered installing linux when my thinkpad does not have a dc/dvd drive and I don't have a usb stick with enough memory to to use as an installation medium.

So the other week, I wanted to try out ubuntu because of Unity and figured wubi is pretty easy. 2 minutes ofrequired interaction and it's installed. In the end, though interesting, I didn't like this version of ubuntu very much. But by then, I had still used it enough to remember all the things I liked about linux. And with Ubuntu installed, I figured it couldn't be too hard to install from from there.

It wasn't and now I am back. In truth, I think this is probably the most satisfactory setup I have ever had right now. It's like all the little niggling minor imperfections have been ironed out while I was away:

All the tools for Thinkpad are available for Linux as well in one shape or another, xfce has really matured, the bling has gone up a notch since I was away too with icon themes and gtk themes usable with xfce. With Abiword's support for odf and docx and my discovery of Ease, I can dispense with the bloat of Libreoffice. Opera has been ported to gtk while I was away (major win), viewnior is a terrific new lightweight image viewer, mobile broadband worked out of the box with networkmanager, there is a usable 64-bit flash plugin again, sopcast has a usable gtk interface now.

I've got a lightweight super fast system on a machine that could run kde without real lag, yet there are no apps or functionality that have me sending longing looks towards gnome or kde now (well except maybe dolphin. what an awesome file manager). Everything works here and in the way I'd like it without feeling gimped for functionality due to speed.

I am tempted to wish for a gtk port of skype, smplayer and clementine, but qt integrates so harmoniously and loads just as fast for me, it makes no difference to me anymore. If skype would just release a bloody 64-bit client and someone would bloody clone Dolphin with GTK without gnome dependencies (how hard can it be?!?), this setup would be too perfect to be true.

Last edited by b9anders (2011-05-14 08:52:41)

Skoglar · 2011-05-16 00:36:24

Archlinux was my first and last linux distro, the knowledge base this community has is just amazing, it made the whole process of learning to use and tinker with the system so much easier than it woulda' been. Archlinux is designed to make all of its layers accesible to the users, its trust in the users capacities is the main reason why I dont think i'll ever, ever leave it.

richardm198030 · 2011-05-19 17:40:39

My Arch Linux Experience has been amazing, I love this system soooooo much, I couldn't get anything to work on alsa, installed oss, wow !! what a difference between OSS and alsa, OSS all the way for me, . Last time I came here I had loads of questions, all questions are considered answered, . This system runs better than OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, IMHO.. Guild Wars, and Runes of Magic (Windows games) runs wondefully on Wine in Arch, OSUSE and Ubuntu, forget it, LOL.. Anywho, leaev 'em, I take 'em all, negative positive, heh.

litemotiv · 2011-05-19 18:15:40

Merged richardm198030's thread.

hurleyef · 2011-05-29 13:58:57

Every time I have a question, the answer is in the archwiki. Well, maybe not every time, but like 99%. <3

srikanthradix · 2011-06-02 16:52:01

I have been on Ubuntu for 1 year, Linux Mint for about 6 months, Fedora for 6 months, Gentoo for 2 months, Debian for few months and Arch since then. I like Arch a lot. I feel comfortable changing configurations stuff in Arch and I feel that it is good for me. If it is not Arch, I would have stuck with Gentoo/Debian. I have installed Arch on my eeepc as well. It feels great except while playing flash videos. Not sure, when the flash will be improved or when HTML5 would be used.

imetallica · 2011-06-04 03:00:31

I use Linux for almost 5 years. Mainly due to the nature of it's open sourceness, who got me interested.

Since that time I've been using distros with all stuff already packed and installed, where you just choose your GUI and blablabla... it does the job for you. After joining the physics institut, in UFRJ, my desire for knowledge grew exponencially. I saw that many of the stuff we use nearly everyday in university was build upon open source. And I was like: "Hell I've been using Linux for almost 5 years now and what I know about it is not enough for me."

I've been searching for a distro that pleases me, I've been trying distros since then, I've been switching distros 'till I find my home. 'Till this very day...
When I was on my laptop 5 days ago, thinking about which one should I give a shot, came to my memory the name: Arch!
Ok, let's give a shot, I tought. And so I did. While I was downloading the .iso image, I was browsing the good tutorials about installing Arch, and I've to say: I couldn't believe that was that easy to set up my very Linux distro myself. Install what I wish to, have what system I wish to. This was something that I dreamt. And something that become reality just now.

The best part while I was playing with the terminal, doing a step by step instalation on arch is the fact that, in the same time I was learning abit more about Linux, it gaved me some hours of distraction. It's funny to see what's going on on your system and what this marvellous feature called "pacman" can do. What, something in the beginning was looking very hard for me, in the end, after some hours of trying I could reach a perfect system with everything I just wished to have. I can't say how much I'm pleased for this, mainly 'cos, hell I'm _loving_ it and I don't have words to describe it!

Just to finish this post all I want to say is: "Thank you! You all from Arch gaved me exactly what I needed and I can say I've found my /home here."

Cheers.

cuihao · 2011-06-06 07:24:39

emm...
I used Ubuntu when I first get in touch with Linux 4 years ago, for it is the most popular distro in China at that time.
Then I found Ubuntu too heavy and felt bored. I knew Arch in the Chinese Ubuntu forum, then I tried it.

I've been using Arch for a year, I find it really interesting. For there are always many things to learn, to discover when using Arch. As skjald says "panicking when something broke, rejoicing when something worked...".

TheOldFellow · 2011-06-16 11:23:01

This isn't my first experience of a real Linux. I used to roll my own Linux From Scratch for years. Then I got seduced by the ease of upgrade in Ubuntu, and started to tell Windows-addicts about how easy (and free) it all was, so I had to keep using it to provide support. But now I'm telling them to move on, Ubuntu has lost it's way as far as I'm concerned. But I can't spare the time to go back to LFS, so Arch is an ideal distro from me. Easy to install and set up, easy to maintain, excellent support in the wiki and forums. I am more than impressed with Pacman, so far it has done everything I wanted.

Actually my experience with Unix goes back to the early 1970's, and Arch appears to me to be the best yet. Not sure if it's right to suggest it to newbie ex-windows-addicts though, for most of them the computer isn't a hobby.

TOF.

Brcher · 2011-06-21 00:01:37

Arch is awesome. I'm occasionally careless (just with my own stuff!), but the simplicity of Arch makes it easy to fix my mistakes, and rarely complicated enough to be considered a big project. And it is barebones enough for these fixes to be educational.

tim_linux · 2011-06-21 00:14:01

Hi Everyone,

For work I have been using Red Enterprise Server for years and Fedora for my desktop. ArchLinux has been getting a lot of press lately and the concept of keeping it simple would really encourage me to learn more about Linux itself. I have used Slackware in the past and people have been recommending Gentoo, which I haven't tried.

Lovely amount of documentation even for a non-native English speaker and I look forward to installing Arch as an alternative to Fedora.

jasonwryan · 2011-06-21 00:18:44

Hi Tim - thanks for the note.

Merging with the Unofficial Official Arch is Best thread...

Kooothor · 2011-08-10 11:41:46

Hello,
I just wanted to say that my Arch box didn't break since I installed it one year ago. We see only the problems on the forum, but some users don't have them, and I think that all the devs and contributors would love to read that what they do actually works !
So here I am : «Good job guys, it just works ! And thanks too for this great distro »

martin_legion · 2011-08-17 12:24:36

I'm relatively new to Arch, but not to Linux (or at least I thought, until I began using Arch)
my experience with Arch is like "I have to do everything myself", but also "there is always a wiki that explains perfectly how to do it", so... I love it.
Plus, being a rolling release is priceless.

markg85 · 2011-08-18 13:35:34

Hi,

I have an SSD since a few weeks (120GB) and made 2 partition for windows and linux (60/60 GB).
Now just something that amazes me. When i start Arch it really takes ~10 seconds or perhaps even less from grub till i'm in KDM! Impressive!

As for KDE (4.7) that is so freakingly fluid and smooth!
And i'm on AMD hardware
- 1100T CPU
- 6870 GPU

Really big thanx to Arch and KDE for being so fast.
Compared to Windows 7 i'm MUCH faster in boot time and the apps all just start WAY faster in KDE

** an SSD really helps **

Just a word of gratitude instead of issues or negative critic. ^_^

Regards,
Mark

fsckd · 2011-08-18 13:49:41

Hi markg85, thanks for the positive comments. They are much appreciated. Merging with Arch is Best thread.

markg85 · 2011-08-18 14:18:49

fsckd wrote:

Hi markg85, thanks for the positive comments. They are much appreciated. Merging with Arch is Best thread.

ehh that was not my intention, but oke

nXqd · 2011-08-20 05:15:21

Just few days ago, I tried Ubuntu and in 10 minutes I get rid of it. Just because of Arch is so good

MatejLach · 2011-08-25 10:52:12

Why I dedicated for Arch:
- Rolling Release, (I REALLY like such concept)
- Pacman, (best package manager ever!)
- The Arch Way, (KISS, BSD-style configs and ports-like ABS mainly)
- Community
- Focus only on x86 and x64, not many platforms with poor development activity as other distros.
- Because Arch is independent, community-driven distro, without large corporaion behind its development.
- It is not just another *buntu or *whateverhat.
- Because of the challenge if I could install it, (but because I successfully installed FreeBSD and OpenBSD many times, I was quite comfortable).

fox86 · 2011-09-01 08:29:07

Here I am. Another time.
After a few months of pilgrimage from distro to distro, from a bug to another, from 'rolling release' to 'versioned release', at the end I've come back to the origins.
This is my favourite distro, I've no doubt.
Its flexibility combined with its software updates, promise to build a perfect system.

Why arch? Someone asked to me.
Why stay back? I've replied.

And for you? Why arch?(or else Why not arch?)

flamelab · 2011-09-01 08:36:22

It's a distro which doesn't have "personality issues" like other distros. It is what it is and we like it for that reason and only.

Inxsible · 2011-09-01 13:33:27

fox86, thread merged with the 'Arch is Best' thread

Sadin · 2011-09-20 04:01:22

thank you to everyone on the #archlinux irc channel. You all helped me to troubleshoot my second arch linux install and im so happy for finishing. This OS has alot of potential and i finnaly found a system that is only what i ask of it nothing else.

Thanks again archlinux community and i hope to be a better member myself in the near future!

Arch Linux

#551 2011-04-26 08:29:38

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#552 2011-05-13 11:08:01

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#553 2011-05-14 08:49:43

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#554 2011-05-16 00:36:24

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#555 2011-05-19 17:40:39

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#556 2011-05-19 18:15:40

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#557 2011-05-29 13:58:57

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#558 2011-06-02 16:52:01

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#559 2011-06-04 03:00:31

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#560 2011-06-06 07:24:39

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#561 2011-06-16 11:23:01

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#562 2011-06-21 00:01:37

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#563 2011-06-21 00:14:01

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#564 2011-06-21 00:18:44

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#565 2011-08-10 11:41:46

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#566 2011-08-17 12:24:36

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#567 2011-08-18 13:35:34

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#568 2011-08-18 13:49:41

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#569 2011-08-18 14:18:49

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#570 2011-08-20 05:15:21

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#571 2011-08-25 10:52:12

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#572 2011-09-01 08:29:07

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#573 2011-09-01 08:36:22

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#574 2011-09-01 13:33:27

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

#575 2011-09-20 04:01:22

Re: The Official Unofficial 'Arch is Best' Thread

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