I’m happy to say “i run arch btw” (actually CachyOS but without most of the weird cachyos-stuff but still using their v3 repositories) for about two weeks now. It’s pretty great so far, no breakages or anything, feels a bit faster and updates are much quicker to do, too.
Alongside with Debian sid and flakified NixOS of course…
I’ve used arch on one machine now, am a total noob to it, and I really like it. I see what people are raving about and I see no reason to shit on it. I don’t really care if 6 years ago some people were annoying about it
What’s so good about it?
The existence of ArchWiki and the Arch User Respository (AUR). And rolling releases, if that’s your thing.
It fits me
Basically just the fact that it’s very lightweight, I was able to install it on an rpi5 (not officially supported), install only what I needed, and was able to resolve all the issues I had for my niche use-case.
There is a quite noticeable difference in how snappy it feels versus the official rpi OS. Arch runs way zippier on it. Those devices are a little limited hardware-wise so it makes a big difference in what it feels like to use that system.
I also like knowing that the updates flowing in so quickly, I get the latest fixes and new features before I would on any of the other distros I’ve used. I have always been a little scared of rolling releases but over the last couple months I haven’t seen any breakages yet so fingers crossed! A lot of people have tried to tell me rolling release can be solid, but I was skeptical.
snappy it feels versus the official rpi OS
I blame the desktop manager. Once I ditched the default von on the pi, and replaced it with standard gnome, the pi became almost as snappy as my regular notebook.
in general: standard debian should be exactly as light-weight as arch.
Oh I misread what you wrote in the first paragraph. Yeah I actually did try that route too, installing Gnome on PI OS lite. I used this guide: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=276512
It actually was pretty slow for me for some reason. I had some weird crashes and things too, so I abandoned that.
for me it was on a pi5. maybe the amd64 was what made it work for me? idk.
Good to know. Yeah, I actually did try to install debian iirc but I didn’t have any luck.
It’s a bit tounge in cheek, nobody actually got mad at the arch namedropping. More like “I’m a platinum level player in LoL”. Lol.
I always got the impression that it was more of an “Oh god one of THESE insufferable people”. I’m just saying from my experience – they have a point. Arch is pretty nice.
Arch is good, no doubt 👍.
Void is better 😁.
How?
Faster, more stable, no systemd, supports musl and architectures not usually supported by most distros. It’s probably the most stable rolling release distro out there.
How is it faster? You mean every program runs faster or what?
No, just bootup and general responsivness of the system. Software is still compiled by the ssme compilers used in other distros. Everything is not magically faster.
Though on the musl build, yeah, it is faster. Trouble is, you can’t run glibc software on it. Through chroot, yeah, but natively, no.
- The package manager is extremely fast
- The lack of systemd reduces startup time
- The musl libc marginally speeds up programs
Gonna give it a try one day
Oh great so now i have to unlearn systemd again?
Runit is even easier than doing things in systemd.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/PRpcqj9QR68
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
What is the benefit of no systemd?
The main benefit is that when people get tired of distro flame wars, they can move on init system flame wars.
It’s too popular and it works too well.
Not true, doesn’t work well at all. It’s bloated and full of bugs.
I literally haven’t run into a single one in the whole time Arch has been using it.
(I installed Arch shortly before it switched to systemd and have been using it since without pause)
What are the systemd bugs that are so bad? I kinda get the bloated comment, but I don’t really mind when it serves its purpose
Boasting, mainly.
I have no horse in this race, I don’t have strong feelings about it either way as long as it works. But I can’t help but notice that OP skipped replying to me.
OP said “bloated and full of bugs”.
I’ve been using Arch since shortly before they started using systemd and literally never ran into a systemd bug.
I have no clue at this point what “bloated” means. Maybe if everything works and you don’t have to hack up your own solution all the time, that’s “bloat”?
With the price of energy being what it is, people need the systemd flame wars to keep them warm!
No, I just don’t like systemd. It’s bloated and full of bugs. Just because almost every distro out there uses it, doesn’t mean it’s good.
I’m feeling warmer already, thanks!
Does it support glibc while it supports musl?
Yes. From their website:
C library diversity
Void Linux supports both the musl and GNU libc implementations, patching incompatible software when necessary and working with upstream developers to improve the correctness and portability of their projects.
“Patching incompatible software”
What does that mean? If glibc is supported why there is a portability issueand requirement of patches?
They are likely referring to musl. Patches might be needed for some programs to work with musl.
Presumably so it can work with either libc implementation.
Yes, there are basically 2 builds for every architecture. One is glibc, the other is musl. I haven’t used the musl builds that much, just toyed with them a few times (mainly because of lack of software), but if you only use open source software that doesn’t specifically depend on the GNU toolchain, yes, you can daily drive it, no doubt there. And yes, it is faster than the glibc builds.
Interesting. I will have to try it some time. I just know on my raspberry pi 5, out of the few OSes I could get to run on it, Arch was the fastest and smoothest running, and gets updates all the time. All this, even though rpi5 is not even officially supported yet!
Void runs even faster, I’ve tried (on an older RPi, but still).
Many programs aren’t packaged for Void though
Repackaging is easy though with xbps-src.
Tell me more about it. Let’s say I have an Arch (AUR) package that I want to repackage for Void, how do I do it?
The syntax is a bit different, but everything else, more or less the same. In fact, if you just wanna repackage a deb or an rpm, it’s even easier than in Arch, xbps-src can handle deb and rpm automatically, it detects dependencies and does repackaging on it’s own. You basically just have to feed it the deb/rpm file in a one liner, that’s it.
I should probably give an example. Here is the template file (they’re called templates in Void) for Viber. You basically just feed it the deb, do a
vcopy(copy operation specific to xbps-src) and that’s it, everything else regarding the repackaging is done automatically by xbps-src.
Tips Fedora.
m’lady!
I couldn’t figure out how to make the wifi on my Debian machine reliable so I replaced the default wifi manager front-end and backend with iwctl, the same thing Arch uses by default. It seems to be working but now I have an unholy abomination of Debian spliced with Arch DNA.
Lol, that’s normal in Arch, Void, Gentoo, LFS.
Almost every proprietery software there is out there has only Debian/Ubuntu packages, yet we run them in Arch, Void, Gentoo… as long as the dependencies are there, it doesn’t matter what distro you run the software on.
Every distro is an unholy abomination made by plugging the maintainers’ favorite parts together
It’s perfectly fine to use different ways to do things in Debian, just don’t mix incompatible repos.
https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse#IWCtlA simple fix is to replace the rest of Debian with Arch.
I’m going to use Debian btw
Environmental storytelling
She learned NixOS
Look at the sub 😉.
I saw you post that a couple of times and didn’t realize you meant the sub within the picture, I was trying to find the significance of this being posted in linuxmemes lol
Meeh, it was funny… not a meme per say, but still, funny 😁.
I don’t see what the problem is with Arch Linux and why it gets so much flak. I am not a Linux expert by any measure, but I use EndeavourOS and find it really use to use (don’t ask me to install from scratch). Its extremely stable and I like the fact that it gets updated constantly.
The only other distro I really liked is MX Linux. My main gripe was that I don’t want to reinstall every so many years. I want to set up an OS and just use it without worrying about it being a temporary thing. But maybe I’ll change my mind in the future.
I’m not for or against any distro really, maybe except Ubuntu and its bloat. I just use what best suits me, which is the whole point of all the different distros.
I don’t think this is an “Arch is bad” post, but rather a “Void is good post”. I think the sticker is remove because it’s not relevant to them anymore.
Look at the sub in which this is posted 😉. That was the joke 😉.
Manjaro is truly the worst distro of all time and probably helps give arch a bad name
I had like 2 issues that took literal minutes to fix over the years I ran Manjaro, I know there were some silly misconfigurations years ago but I never paid much attention then the hate and it ran all my stuff just fine. 🤷♂️
Built a new rig a few weeks ago and decided to check out EndeavorOS, but would have stuck with that Manjaro install for a while if I hadn’t.
if you want to know my problems with manjaro, see this discussion: https://lemmy.ml/comment/9214664
It’s a super problematic distro made by an insanely incompetent team, I promise you have been lucky, i’ve given it to many people and spent years using it, it’s garbage.
I use Manjaro, btw.
Samesies
Oracle Linux exists
i think its just people taking the “i use arch btw” meme too seriously and thinking its bad to show or even use it all
Its extremely stable
This is why people make fun of arch users
I was asked what I think of the distro “Arch btw” since everyone recommends it. Gold.
I use Manjaro btw
This post is the thousand words. Remove the picture, it’s redundant now
“void does have a pine tree up their ass tho” – Vaxerski
Ugh ex Star Trek nerds, am I right guys? /s
Hahahah 🤣🤣🤣… good one 🤣.
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/70aa7a8c-6237-405e-928c-ad28732967e2.png
I’m a Captain, BTW.
artix my beloved
I don’t use Arch, btw
No longer* xD
