On switching to Arch Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: On switching to Arch Linux

#171

Post by TwinEngine » Thu, Feb 02, 2012, 4:16 AM UTC

re_todd wrote: post #170

TwinEngine wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you enjoy working with virtual machines instead of all native? This is admittedly my first day of not being just a lurker here, so forgive me if I shouldn't ask this here, but what is your setup and environment like? I've considered running VMs for each client I work on, but am unsure if it'd just be a hassle or not.

I run Ubuntu as my main OS. Then I have VirtualBox running with couple Windows virtual installs and a couple Linux virtual installs. I give about 5G-10G disk space to each, and about 500M to 800M RAM to each (my work laptop only has 2GB, so I have to be careful). The windows virtual installs are for running different versions of IE and programs like Photoshop. The Linux versions are for running things I don't want to…

Wow. That's fantastic. I'll do that tonight actually. Because ArchLinux is constantly moving so quickly, I'd like to know what I might have to deal with when I run a pacman -Syu.

I think I'm a convert. Now, if I could get OSX to boot in a VM, and dedicate the entire HDD to Arch, that would be perfect. For some reason my Macbook won't boot the 64bit Archboot iso. But I'll wrestle that demon another day, heh.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Re: On switching to Arch Linux

#172

Post by TwinEngine » Thu, Feb 02, 2012, 4:19 AM UTC

SkyMarshal wrote: post #169

TwinEngine wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you enjoy working with virtual machines instead of all native? This is admittedly my first day of not being just a lurker here, so forgive me if I shouldn't ask this here, but what is your setup and environment like? I've considered running VMs for each client I work on, but am unsure if it'd just be a hassle or not.

As long as your hardware can handle it, it's more than worth it. A few points: 1. I have a rule - never install server software on my base machine. Servers and server frameworks (like Rails, Jetty, PostgreSQL, etc.) are only allowed on server OS's (Ubuntu Server) running in a virtual machine. That keeps a lot of cruft and extraneous processes out of my base install, while also quarantining them into easily clonable v…

Hm. Interesting. So do you deploy your code to the VM? Or do you edit your work over an SSH connection and terminal editor?

Re: On switching to Arch Linux

#173

Post by markokocic » Mon, Feb 06, 2012, 10:20 AM UTC

ElliotH wrote: post #13

markokocic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was running Gentoo before. In Gentoo, you could configure everything up to the smallest details, and you had the system that worked exactly as you want it too. The cost was frequent recompiles and a bunch of time lost playing with the things. After I swithced to Arch, I found it much easier to configure, and it required almost no maintenance. It is a great balance between ease of use and full power.

Have you found a difference in freshness of packages since you switched? I really like how in Arch packages tend to be much more up to date than other distros ( a side effect of the rolling release)

Gentoo had slightly fresher packages (I was running ~x86). But, arch packages are in principle more stable. I haven't had any major breakage with Arch for a few years now, while with Gentoo it was a norm to have breakages every month until I finally switched off.

Re: On switching to Arch Linux

#174

Post by Jach » Mon, Feb 06, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

markokocic wrote: post #173

ElliotH wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you found a difference in freshness of packages since you switched? I really like how in Arch packages tend to be much more up to date than other distros ( a side effect of the rolling release)

Gentoo had slightly fresher packages (I was running ~x86). But, arch packages are in principle more stable. I haven't had any major breakage with Arch for a few years now, while with Gentoo it was a norm to have breakages every month until I finally switched off.

I was under the impression that the situation was reversed. My Gentoo systems have been very stable because I take many of the masked package guidelines seriously (of course not all). Meanwhile you have Arch that changed the default python version to 3 back in October 2010 that hosed a lot of people's systems. Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1808840 and my favorite quote (there are so many great ones though) from the mess:

20:20 well that confirms my impression that arch was invented by a bunch of guys who thought gentoo was too stable and easy to use