The main benefit of Arch Linux to me is that when you do a drive-by patch to some software project, it is not unthinkable that the fix reaches you through upstream and an Arch package update in a matter of hours. This flow is not possible with distributions that run pretty out of date software and have long release cycles: the version that's included with the distribution is usually too old to be able to check out the source, test and directly apply fixes to the upstream repository, and getting those fixes back would take months. This also applies to security updates, as it's easier to rely on instant upstream project updates than on some distribution package owner to remember and backport those fixes.
Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
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Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#92What I really like about Arch is how minimal & fast it can be without resorting to 'exotic' software or libraries. I recently installed Archlinux32 on an old Pentium II machine just for the fun of it and was pleasantly surprised that it still feels reasonably responsive (I didn't get X11 to work yet though as the GPU driver for that machine apparently never reached mainline or was removed in the meantime). Everything…
Arch is not minimal. Debian netinstall does the same. Alpine is. If you think Arch is fast, try Alpine x86. On X.Org, VESA works everywhere.
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Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#93How does a similar Nix OS setup compare as far as number of packages? Is Nix just as minimal as Arch?
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve heard of Manjaro, but on the occasions when I’ve brought it up in conversation, people have almost unanimously warned me off from it in fairly strong terms… not entirely sure why, but that alone makes me reluctant to use it.
They had multiple issues with opsec in the past. Something that when repeats, makes people skittish. Fool me once and al..
It literally took them two months to push the critical expat update on aarch64.
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#95How does a similar Nix OS setup compare as far as number of packages? Is Nix just as minimal as Arch?
In terms of addressing "you want to know what your system has got", OP argues Arch is good because Arch will only have what you install.
With NixOS, the whole system configuration is declared starting from a single configuration file.
So, NixOS is great for addressing "I forgot how I set up".
You'll likely end up using more disk space with NixOS if you're changing your system, since NixOS has functionality which makes it easy to rollback the system to earlier configurations.
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#96Interesting to see the documentation emphasized here. I don't use Arch, but I often see the arch wiki in google results for linux stuff I look up. Makes me wonder why wikis aren't used more for documentation.
Other distros have wikis but tend to focus more on documentation the distro specific details. Since Arch packages have very minimal modifications from upstream, this means much of the content from the ArchWiki is applicable across distros. But then once you have one wiki covering the generic advice, there's less motivation for others to duplicate that effort anyway.
I use gentoo, and still have arch wiki in bookmarks as go-to place to look for docs
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#97> The installation process, and the documentation behind it, lead to the third virtue: a complete installation tends to be very small and simple, because you only install the bits you need. If you don't know what bits you need, the documentation will help you to work it out, and the result is something that is both fairly minimal and that, with luck, you understand. You know what's in there because you installed it.…
Not anymore. Archinstall, an easy-to-use installation script, now comes included in the ISO and so now anyone can install it and get a full-fledged OOTB distro ready within minutes.
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#98> The installation process, and the documentation behind it, lead to the third virtue: a complete installation tends to be very small and simple, because you only install the bits you need. If you don't know what bits you need, the documentation will help you to work it out, and the result is something that is both fairly minimal and that, with luck, you understand. You know what's in there because you installed it.…
Installing arch used to be a lot easier before they deleted the Beginners Guide and redistributed the contents to a bunch of different pages in the wiki.
edit: Beginner's guide, not install guide, is what was deleted
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#99> The installation process, and the documentation behind it, lead to the third virtue: a complete installation tends to be very small and simple, because you only install the bits you need. If you don't know what bits you need, the documentation will help you to work it out, and the result is something that is both fairly minimal and that, with luck, you understand. You know what's in there because you installed it.…
Not anymore. Archinstall, an easy-to-use installation script, now comes included in the ISO and so now anyone can install it and get a full-fledged OOTB distro ready within minutes.
Does archinstall let you luks encrypt without LVM? I've never understood why every distro feels these two are dependent on each other.
Re: Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation
#100Arch is awesome and was the distro that finally got me to stop sticking to Windows. Every other distro I tried had some flaw that kept on making its experience subpar, and I have tried a lot of distros - Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Manjaro, Fedora, and a few more. I was staying away from Arch for its reportedly complex installation. But this month I decided to take the bullet and, to my surprise, got a fast and flawless system installed within minutes! Archinstall now makes it just as easy to install as anything else, the AUR is awesome and has everything you'll ever need, and the wiki is just unparalleled.
This distro leaves all others in the dust in terms of speed and software availability; I will highly recommend it to everyone looking for a no-nonsense and up-to-date system.