On Monday, August 26, 2013 09:09:02 Tobias Pankrath wrote: > On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 22:35:50 UTC, John Colvin wrote: > > OT: > > > > This might be the final straw that takes me over to Arch. > > > > How are things over on that side of linux? I've been using > > ubuntu/lubuntu/fedora/mint on various machines for years but > > never really tried out the more DIY distros. > > I'm using Arch for quite a while now. It does take considerably > longer to setup, especially the first time. I'd say, you should > only do it, if you like to tinker with your system. > > There are some configuration 'errors' from time to time. So I > needed to manually add some udev rules and change file > permissions to make my printer fly recently. > > Also you'll encounter problems during updates that need manual > intervention. Reading the news at archlinux.org before updating > is a must. > > That said, you don't have more issues with Arch than with any > other distro. Maybe other issues. And you get the newest software > and an easy way to rebuild packages or make your own.
Arch is fantastic if you're willing to get your hands dirty a bit. It's nowhere near as hard to use as Gentoo is, but it does take a fair but of manual setup and management. I definitely wouldn't call it newbie-friendly. But it's by the easiest distro that I've ever used for having bleeding edge software, and everything is vanilla instead of being screwed with to make distro-specific. So, if you're willing to tinker a bit, it's well worth it IMHO, and for the most part, once it's going, it's not that hard to keep it going, but don't use it if you want something that "just works." - Jonathan M Davis