Arch Linux

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone here use Arch Linux? I just tried it yesterday, and it seems like a pretty good distro. One of the things I like about it is it gives you the option of using it as a live distro, without having to install it to the hard drive. I'm currently booting it from a live ISO, without any graphics, in the Z Shell.

What is more important using it long term is that it's rolling release. Meaning you won't have to wait for a new version to be released to get new software.

Arch Linux is a very nice distro. Too bad it doesn't have the support of the Debian-based distros.

I love Arch. I have it installed on my laptop since I need something light since it's getting to be an older laptop and my power usange is a factor. It took a while to install but once it was loaded I can't really see a need to change. I use it with an XFCE desktop. I love it because you can change ANYTHING and mod it exactly as you need it.

This and ease of cross compiling for ARM were what tipped the decision toward Debian (or Debian based) for me. But I still keep a laptop going with Arch just to keep an eye on it, it is a nice distro and still has untapped potential, IMO.

I use Manjaro which is derived from Arch as my main OS. It's alright, not a perfect OS, but I really like the AUR. It's less of a pain to deal with than PPAs on Ubuntu.

I'm trying out an OS called Bunsen Labs: www.bunsenlabs.org

It was inspired by and split off of CrunchBang Linux which for some reason was discontinued. It is lite weight, uses the minimal OpenBox desktop environment, and I also like that it's base is Debian. It is a really good operating system for my old HP Mini Netbook that I've had for close to 6 years.

I still miss Crunchbang. None of the newer spinoffs I've tried have been as good.

Yeah, I just put Arch back on my HP Mini Netbook. It seems to be the best and more flexible option for an old 32 bit machine like that.

Does mainline Arch have any advantages over Manjaro? I know it's supposed to be more bleeding-edge.

I tried Bunsen Labs Linux on my old Pentium 4 machine, but I found it too slow, even though it's supposed to be a "lightweight" distro. Now I'm using Bodhi Linux, which is just blazing fast, despite having a fancier desktop environment. I might try installing Arch on it in the future with Xfce to compare, but it just takes a really long time to set up and tune it to my liking.

^ I agree, Bunsen Labs is no replacement for Crunchbang. However, since Crunchbang is pretty much just a pre-riced minimal Debian variant, I wonder how hard it would be to replicate it.