Linux CSUF - 2015-05-02

Question I received:

I know I'm asking someone who has a biased opinion, but how do you like Arch? I have been on Debian for awhile (non-buntu distros) and like it but hate having to re-install the OS after the LTS is done, lol. Plus, I'm always down to tinker with things and I like the freedom and power Arch seems to boast about. I was thinking about trying out Manjaro to get my feet wet but just wanted an opinion from someone who has been using Arch/Arch-based distros for awhile.

My response:

  • First, I'd like to state with the release of Debian 8, the full SystemD-ification of GNU/Linux really becomes concrete. If you aren't already using SystemD, you are about to be in for quite the shock.
  • Second, Manjaro is a fork of ArchLinux, so I'd suggest either ArchBang or Antergos. The discrepancy is Debian vs Ubuntu -style, the repos are different.
  • Third, if you REALLY want to get to know what is going on, then I'll take the time to plug the source-based distros Gentoo and Slackware, I have friends that are die-hard users of both.

My distro path traversal = { Knoppix, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Sabayon, Fedora, ArchLinux }
Embedded = { PuppyLinux, Maemo, Debian/optware, WebOS, ArchLinux ARM }

I've been using Linux ~11 years, Arch ~4 years.

With that being said, IMO the nitty gritty:

  1. the Arch repos are bleeding edge which is both good and bad
  2. pacman is more powerful than apt-get and yum (but emerge is better)
  3. the AUR is superior to both PPAs (Debian/Ubuntu) and overlays (Gentoo)
  4. Writing PKGBUILDs (Arch) or ebuilds (Gentoo) is so much better than .deb control files and .rpm spec files
  5. If you don't update often, LOTS of stuff will break. If you DO update often, some stuff will also break.