Contributed by: JawsThemeSwimming428
Arch Experiment: The end of a distro junkie?
Installation:
If you are a distro junkie like me, you are used to breezing through the graphical installer and having a fully functioning system within a short period of time. With Arch, that's not the case and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. After the Arch install you have a base system which is ready to be customized and configured to your heart's content. This is the main reason why I don't recommend Arch for beginners. I have been installing/customizing/blowing up a lot of distro's and even after all that trial and error it took me a few times to get Arch (the base system) installed correctly.
Key points to keep in mind:
- Arch is not for a beginner who just wants a working system as soon as possible. It is about learning your system inside and out (boy do they really mean that) from the beginning to the end of the installation process and with everyday use.
- The install process can take awhile, so make sure you have at least a few hours to devote to getting the BASE SYSTEM installed.
- Installing in VirtualBox simplifies the install a little bit (i.e. networking, disk partitioning) but you still have to know a good amount about your system and/or be patient and willing to read and learn.
Arch wasn't as scary as I had initially thought it would be. Based on some of the reviews and other materials I read up on before deciding to “take the plunge”, I was a little apprehensive to tinker with Arch. Contrary to my first impression the amount of excellent documentation and relative simplicity of the installer made installing Arch much less painful. As long as you read the prompts and have a source to quickly research when you don't know something, it shouldn't be too much to handle. The best resource (and probably main reason why I have Arch running right now) is the Beginner's Guide linked to from the first page of the Arch Wiki.
Configuring the Installed System:
This is where the KISS philosophy comes in. You will get a VERY intimate knowledge of your system and the components it is comprised of. Setting Arch up in VirtualBox was a good first step for me because it allowed me to see how the system actually works without having to install drivers, configure my wireless, and get too down and dirty. The VirtualBox drivers are pretty much auto-detected and work fine. There is still a small amount of configuration file editing and the like that needs to be done. I strongly suggest to anyone installing Arch, when editing configuration files, you go over it slowly and make sure everything is exactly the way it should be. I found myself (more than once) racking my brain as to why something wasn't working only to learn a short while later I forgot to do something in one of the config. files. One of my favorite parts of this is there is no default Desktop Environment. Once the system is installed, it is entirely up to the user what they want to put in their system. You can choose ANY desktop environment you want. There is a tailored version of KDE called KDEmod () that Arch members built specifically for Arch. That is what I installed, and I am very happy I did (the UI is excellent).
Key Features
- pacman is just as quick if not quicker than apt-get and handles dependencies well
- central configuration through /etc/rc.conf
My Experiences
There isn't really much I can say that would give me a reason not to use Arch. The biggest hurdle for someone wishing to try Arch is getting past the installation. Many people see the words “command line” and “no graphical installer” and don't even bother to start the download. In most cases, I probably would have done the same. The thing that made me try Arch is the fact that I really couldn't find ANY negatives from researching it online. The amount of documentation is enough to guide even a newcomer (if I can do it anyone can) through the install.
Another good supplement to the excellent documentation is the online community. Many distros have good online communities, but only a few have great ones (my opinion). Mepis has one of the best online communities I have ever been a part of. Arch is also one of the “great” communities but in a different way. The nice thing about the Arch community is that it is mainly experienced Linux users and/or developers. This is a valuable resource because you will often get very quick and technical answers to what your problem is and how to fix it. The Arch forum is also rather large (in my opinion) and therefore has a lot of previously reported issues already solved for you to browse in case of a problem. Numerous times I found myself blindly searching through the Arch forum to find someone who had previously encountered my exact same issue and posted a well-documented solution.
Yet another feature of Arch I found myself thoroughly enjoying is the Arch User Repository (AUR). This is a space where Arch users can upload their own packages for other users to benefit from. This provides a great sense of community as well as expanding their main repository. You can learn more about the AUR here:
On the balance scales:
Positives:
- Best documentation of any distro, period.
- Speedy (i686 optimized)
- Rolling Release (you never have to reinstall!)
Negatives:
- Smaller repositories than Debian-based distros but definitely enough for most users
- Not for people who want nothing to do with the command line (not necessarily a negative but some would view it that way)
- It has graphical font ends for Pacman (none standard) but I think I would miss Synaptic
More to come. . .
Internet Explorer?