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Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

meribold.org

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Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#141

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

Bolkan wrote: post #136
dj_mc_merlin wrote: post #36

The best thing about the rolling releases is that the OS feels ageless. If I leave a Thinkpad sitting in a corner for 3 years and boot it up again to pacman -Syu, it will have basically the same software as my modern Thinkpad. This just tickles my sense of "this is how the computer _should_ behave".

And all the data in your `~/.config`, `~/.cache` will still be in the old format. Linux programs are notoriously bad at handling that kind of things. There is no local data update api like the one provided by android sdk.

Yes, that sucks. I'm not aware of any *nix besides Android that handles that. Would love to be proved wrong.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#142

Post by alin23 »

axby wrote: post #106
zdragnar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that some people don't like tinkering. They want something that will always Just Work. Some of my friends who were long time linux uses switched to macs and stayed there. MacOS wasn't that for me- brew was the cause of no shortage of pain, but even that could have been lived with. It's also not exactly stable- one company I worked for (about 7 years total) had a blanket request that people not update OSX to new…

I recently got a macbook for work and I can't believe how many minor things just can't be changed. I don't think you can change the date format in the top right. It seems like you can't get rid of that damn dock entirely without killing important processes and breaking things. (I'm able to hide it and put it in the left, so it's mostly out of the way, but it seems so anti-user to force this interface on everyone). I…

For the Command Tab issue, I created rcmd to fix it: https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd

It became really annoying to press tab 5 times just to get to the app I need.

If you’re interested in technical writings, I recently wrote about my journey to creating rcmd here: https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog/window-switcher-app-store/

The dock stops being a problem once you set it to automatically hide and find ways to use the mouse less. Shortcat is another tool that helped improve my mouseless workflow, and is kinda of like a vimium for the whole system but with fuzzy search: https://shortcat.app

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#143

Post by Bolkan »

throwaway1777 wrote: post #40

Having to debug X or audio breaking several times even over 10 years is a non-starter. Had these issues 0 times over 10 years on mac, albeit on several machines, but I think it’s extremely rare for someone to reinstall Mac OS ever. Only time I did it was when I tried to setup a hackintosh and that really broke some things.

For me, having to setup X or audio is a bigger deal breaker. Unless it's on nixos. It provides a nix config file that works like a translator between you and all the bazillion different system configuration files.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#145

Post by vbernat »

idoubtit wrote: post #88

I'm a happy user of another rolling release distribution: Debian testing. It's on my desktop and a laptop for a decade (even more for the desktop since I transferred the OS from my previous desktop pc). I can't remember any problem during the upgrades of the recent years. I often apply partial updates through `aptitude` on a weekly basis, and full upgrades once in a while (maybe monthly). There were some rough times…

Another Debian unstable user. It's hard to remember the exact installation date, but I have a `/var/log/firewalld.1` from Aug 25 2002. So, 20 years soon! And it has been migrated from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#146

Post by fonkyyack »

meribold wrote: post #35

I can provide some details regarding the times things did break that I mentioned in the article. * In September 2014, X broke, and I created an `/etc/X11/Xwrapper.config` file with the lines `allowed_users = anybody` and `needs_root_rights = yes` to get it to work again. I don't remember and don't have notes on why that helped. It sure does sound like a pretty terrible hack. I don't have that Xwrapper.config file any…

I had the exact same problems you mentioned!

Also, Nvidia gpu drivers are the worst (I was on Manjaro back then) to seeif I could get rid of Windows for gaming purposes. I used Linux for games for about 6 months and had to quit and get back to Windows.

I should retry now with all the steam deck fuss!

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#147

Post by numlock86 »

I am running Arch on my server (VPS) for over a decade and therefore haven't even noticed the X and audio issues. The only time something broke was when the Ethernet interface suddenly was named eth0 instead of the vendor specific (?) enXsX or whatever it was. And I had configured systemd-networkd to use the absolute and exact names and not some wildcard like e*. Error was located fixed within five minutes.

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#148

Post by oblak »

zdragnar wrote: post #47
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #34

I recently switched to an arch flavor because the AUR had a lot of little small utilities that make life better on wayland. Also, it's quite easy to install the latest version of golang and rust, etc. Pros: Documentation is excellent. Better than even Gentoo or Ubuntu's docs. Cons: Arch doesn't have an installer, and seems almost militantly against providing one, or a lot of other little utilities that could improve…

For me, Manjaro has been a fantastic base on top of Arch to start with- installer, desktop configured for the flavor you pick, and things Just Work out of the box, including the usual suspects like wifi, media keys (speakers, backlight, etc). My only real complaint was that I wanted to do a fairly extensive change to the sway configs, and tracking down where they put all the config files took a bit of time.

But with Manjaro you don't have to personally babysit every computer in the house. Imagine not having your wife and/or child mad after the occasional update breaks things and they're helpless because they simply refuse to get intimate with the OS their own computer! What kind of world would that be?

Re: Using the same Arch Linux installation for a decade

#149

Post by setuids »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #87
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #34

I recently switched to an arch flavor because the AUR had a lot of little small utilities that make life better on wayland. Also, it's quite easy to install the latest version of golang and rust, etc. Pros: Documentation is excellent. Better than even Gentoo or Ubuntu's docs. Cons: Arch doesn't have an installer, and seems almost militantly against providing one, or a lot of other little utilities that could improve…

> Updates seem to break for odd reasons. I had to uninstall nodejs to be able to do a system update. Why? There should be some sort of automated way to address this. That usually happens when a package depends on a specific version of a dependency, with e newer (major) version in the repo. It should only be an issue if you're using AUR packages or other package management systems. Official packages are updated for ne…

For the most part that does seem to be the case. Though I have had problems with Qbittorrent and qt6 not playing nicely unless i hold back qt6. Seems to be resolved now
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