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From macOS to Arch Linux

juxt.pro

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Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#81

Post by lgunsch »

apetresc wrote: post #26
gbrown wrote: post #7

Can an Arch person explain to me why their approach is worth it over something with a more comprehensive package manager like apt or dnf? I don’t mind compiling programs myself when needed, but for most things I’m happy to not have to hand-hold my OS when it comes to updates. From the wiki: > Before upgrading, users are expected to visit the Arch Linux home page to check the latest news, or alternatively subscribe to…

I think you're confusing Arch with Gentoo or something - the Arch package manager is not from-source, it ships binaries just like apt. Perhaps you're thinking of the AUR, which does usually just host the PKGBUILD which you run makepkg on directly to compile, but that's analogous to something like an Ubuntu PPA, not the core package manager. The main thing that people like about it is the rolling release model; new pa…

I have used Arch Linux for the past 8 years. I've had 3 installations on four different laptops (I migrated one installation to a second laptop).

Your comment would be a really great description of my experience.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#82

Post by assbuttbuttass »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #78
alexarnesen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arch is the first system I have been able to support, fully. As in, 100% of the issues I run across with my distro, I can resolve. I used to run Ubuntu as my gnome desktop distribution, and when it worked (99% of the time), it was a superior experience to Arch. However when running Ubuntu I would inevitably run across some issue that seemed to require a level of sysadmin chops that I never have possessed. For the pas…

Would you recommend Arch to someone without a lot of Linux experience? Ubuntu has me thinking of switching to a different OS.

You can give it a try but be prepared to spend a lot of time reading the wiki

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#83

Post by jonfw »

Offpics wrote: post #37
sunaurus wrote: post #10

I just completed my migration in the opposite direction after using Arch Linux as my daily driver for ~10 years. I think Arch Linux is by far the better OS for pretty much all power users, but when using multiple devices, the benefits of the "Apple Ecosystem" outweigh the benefits of an amazing desktop OS for me, which is why I ended up switching to Mac OS. Some key points which I believe are much worse on Mac: * No…

Im going to switch from arch to mac in one month. What I should consider installing on it beside homebrew?

Seeing a lot of recommendations for yabai- but I personally prefer amethyst for window management. Yabai had too much configuration for me- amethyst is easier

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#85

Post by pkulak »

sunaurus wrote: post #10

I just completed my migration in the opposite direction after using Arch Linux as my daily driver for ~10 years. I think Arch Linux is by far the better OS for pretty much all power users, but when using multiple devices, the benefits of the "Apple Ecosystem" outweigh the benefits of an amazing desktop OS for me, which is why I ended up switching to Mac OS. Some key points which I believe are much worse on Mac: * No…

Whoa now, don't leave me hanging. What are the benefits of the "Apple ecosystem"? I'm using a Macbook right now because it's tiny and light and has amazing hardware, but once I need to get things done, it's closed and charging. If you have multiple devices, why do they all need to be identical?

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#86

Post by emidln »

ubermonkey wrote: post #76
popey wrote: post #49

"There are still many things I need to set up on the new laptop, for example: suspension/hibernation on closing the lid doesn’t always work" For me, this is one of those things that should work out of the box. I appreciate Arch is one of those distros you configure manually, and can thus choose whether to implement this or not. But I'd rather not have my laptop burn out in my bag because the system didn't suspend pro…

True fact: proper sleep/wake on lid close is probably 40% of why I switched from Windows to Mac in about 1999 -- and that was when the Mac was on OS 9, not the BSD-based OSX. I can't imagine going to a system where it wouldn't work. That's baseline, out of the box functionality for me.

I thought this was a dealbreaker until I installed an SSD in my laptop in the mid to late 00s. When my machine is fully graphical in less than 5 seconds, I just didn't care. My browser restored tabs, my editor restored everything, my desktop restored windows. It was a complete non-issue as long as the machine could cold-boot quickly. As an upside, my machine also no longer overheated if I forgot to long press the power off prior to putting it in my backpack.

I configured my current laptop to screen off on lid close and to shutdown after 5 minutes. I'm probably just weird.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#87

Post by d3nj4l »

jjoonathan wrote: post #69
popey wrote: post #49

"There are still many things I need to set up on the new laptop, for example: suspension/hibernation on closing the lid doesn’t always work" For me, this is one of those things that should work out of the box. I appreciate Arch is one of those distros you configure manually, and can thus choose whether to implement this or not. But I'd rather not have my laptop burn out in my bag because the system didn't suspend pro…

I tried Manjaro the other day and had to try 3 kernel versions before I found one that woke from sleep without crashing, the display wouldn't hold its resolution through display sleep, bluetooth wouldn't connect without writing a custom config file, and CUPS auto-detected the wrong drivers. I went back to Ubuntu and it all Just Worked. My conclusion: yeah, the Debian stale package problem sucks, but it doesn't suck a…

I had several issues with waking from sleep on Ubuntu based distros as well, and had to wait ages for updates that would fix it. It’s not all green on the other side!

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#88

Post by blux »

tanjiro wrote: post #29

Its not just the initial setup that's painful with Arch, the whole rolling update model means things break often and I no longer have the patience to patch them. But I do agree that linux provides a better env for development compared to macOS. On Ubuntu atm and works like charm with flexibility to extend it as I like.

"...means things break often..."

Citation needed. I can provide some anecdotal evidence to the contrary; I've been running Arch both privately and professionally now for about 15 years and sure there were some issues initially but the last decade or so I've been updating my systems fearlessly on a regular basis.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#89

Post by Comevius »

vurudlxtyt wrote: post #58
zibzab wrote: post #50

I don't get why people go from osx to arch. Why not something that just works, and updating is not Russian roulette?

People like to parrot this but I've literally never had a breaking change from an upgrade in ~5-6 years of Arch usage. At least, if I did, it didn't take more than a couple minutes to fix, because I honestly don't remember having issues. On the other hand doing a dist-upgrade on Ubuntu has burned me more than once. I fear having to do it on one of my home servers, and should really get off of it. I'd argue that updat…

Same experience here with 15 years of Arch usage, a few major issues before systemd, none since, except having to migrate the boot loader, network manager and so on to systemd and from time to time having to use a workaround from the latest news at archlinux.org. I have also migrated to pipewire a month ago with a single command and no issues.

It's quite stress free, because the whole operating system is basically the kernel, systemd, x11 or wayland, pulseaudio or pipewire, the nvidia driver and pacman. Not much can go wrong.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#90

Post by bavell »

lgunsch wrote: post #81
apetresc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're confusing Arch with Gentoo or something - the Arch package manager is not from-source, it ships binaries just like apt. Perhaps you're thinking of the AUR, which does usually just host the PKGBUILD which you run makepkg on directly to compile, but that's analogous to something like an Ubuntu PPA, not the core package manager. The main thing that people like about it is the rolling release model; new pa…

I have used Arch Linux for the past 8 years. I've had 3 installations on four different laptops (I migrated one installation to a second laptop). Your comment would be a really great description of my experience.

I've used Arch for the better part of the last decade and agree with this assessment as well.
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