Arch Linux Review (Early 2012) - Linux Distro Reviews

[ThePenahi]

Just asking, but do you recommend Arch Linux to beginner Linux user at all?

[gimik2]

I was going to install Arch, but I couldn't get the WiFi card to work :(. I am not new to Linux, but I'm not an expert either. I resorted to installing Linux Mint 12 instead!

[dragondef]

@gimik2 Well, this is one thing I learned, is to know what driver I have for my wifi and graphics side, so that way when I go and rebuild my system I just use the same drivers.

[gimik2]

@dragondef that is true, but I tried installing and configuring Arch using their wiki page, and the wifi command for checking the wireless card does not render any info about the card. All I could detect was my ethernet card, even though, on that laptop I need wifi. I'm sure it would have worked had I had it connected through a cable connection. I guess I have to figure out what driver I am using, because all the other Linux distros I used are able to make use of my wireless card.

[Yahnthepyroman]

@gimik2 this is a bit basic, but you remembered include wpa_supplicant during installation right? if you have wpa_supplicant installed make sure your wifi chipset is supported. they dropped support for my wifi chipset in an update once, but a search quick in the arch forum pointed me to some drivers, and it's all good now.

[gimik2]

@Yahnthepyroman Yes, the wpa_supplicant was included during install. I installed sysinfo in Linux Mint and this is what I get for the wireless card:

Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

Subsystem: Intel Corporation 1040

When you say that your wifi card is supported, are you talking about Arch only, or Linux in general? Because, like I said, all other distros of Linux (Mint, PCLinuxOS, SUSE, etc) are able to detect and use my wifi cad.

[Yahnthepyroman]

@gimik2 did you do the "iwl3945, iwl4965 and iwl5000-series" steps in the arch wiki article about Wireless Setup? it might just be a module that's not loaded.

In my case I believe it was a new arch kernel that removed unstable drivers, but it was about the same time as a wpa_supplicant update, so i'm not really sure

[poojkhgf]

good video - I learned enough to know Never to go near Arch - jesus I would never manage to even install the thing!

[MetalxShredder600]

great vid. By any chance do u know were i can get that google chromium theme?

[MaikBeckmann]

Someone asked me "what is kde?". I went off to search youtube for a nice video that shows a recent version of it while explaining the basics. You are the clear winner sir :D

[QiryatYam]

when u want to remove a package, is it simple like "pacman remove" command or do U actually need to search for all the files the package installed on your system and delete them one by one?

[UnforgivableMen]

You could do Dream Linux 5 review

[slickvguy]

Great review. Thank you!

BTW, while I'm sure you know this, I thought I'd mention it for those watching this review who may not know, that when prompted with a question like: "Blah blah blah? [Y/n]" ...the user does not need to type "y" or "Y" to proceed. The "Y" prompt is in uppercase to indicate that it is the default choice. Hitting the enter key is all you need do. (I've never liked the default choice in a package manager being to install rather than abort, but that's another issue). ;)

[rsaranyann]

An informative review!

[jackmtodaro]

This is a brilliant review, although I disagree on Arch being a pain to install. Coming from Gentoo this thing is an absolute breeze.

[hadrons123]

Great review.One of the best Arch linux review.

[magicalmusic0188]

Hi, I was wondering if any of you would help me, I'm thinking of switching from Windows to Linux but I don't know what distro I should use, I use my pc for music, movies, recording (Amateur using Adobe Audition) and guitar pro (I'm guessing I won't be able to use GP or Adobe) and I want it to have a cool visual component and if possible for it to be fast... Any help?

BTW: Congrats on your videos, from Colombia.

(Pentium i3, 2 gb, 500 gb, don't remember any other specifications from my computer)

[Fracpen]

@InfinitelyGalactic wat about joli os ?

[screaminjesus]

Excellent arch/kde 4.8 review. Just tried out kde 4.8 on my arch install as well and was impressed with the improvements.

[OssWiX]

patry is doing arch BANG !!

[Laoch111]

Do you know of a place to download a fully installed ArchLinux VDI file?

[rasix86]

Therese is no supported pacman gui

[MannaTheBerserk]

Is this distro compatible with sandy bridge architecture?

[sollidsnake]

@MannaTheBerserk Yes it is. I'm using it right now with Archlinux. And everything is lightning motherfucking fast :)

[MannaTheBerserk]

@sollidsnake Thank you, that's a good news. I have a Dell M6600 with a Quadro 4000 and I was searching for a distro fully compatible with the sandy bridge architecture. I had some problems with Fedora 16.

[MannaTheBerserk]

@sollidsnake Mine is: i7-2820QM, can't remember the sandy bridge version but the processor supports up to SSE3.

I asked my first question just because I had some problems in making linux recognize the sandy brige way of working, that is the ability to handle the two videocards and chose between the most suitable depending on the task. This is the problem with linux, or at list with Ubuntu and Fedora.

[mrinmoyjk]

Nice review.

Can you please do one on Slitaz?

[memoivoila]

I wonder if I can find an arch install tutorial...

[MannaTheBerserk]

@memoivoila You can find it on the manual website shown in this video. I spotted an installation guide for beginners if I am not wrong.

[memoivoila]

@MannaTheBerserk Thanks man :)

[NewportCraig]

Wow. Impressed by KDE 4.8. Do you know if any 'easier' distros will be using it anytime soon? Arch is beyond my skill level.

[LinuxSpatry]

Magnificent review! Much better than my review! Thanks for mentioning me!

[naosite]

How you record the desktop?

[YaseenNoorani]

Great review!

[ONEBlackJellyFish]

How do you know someone uses arch?

They will tell you.

A HURR DURR

[YaseenNoorani]

@ONEBlackJellyFish 'How do you know someone uses arch?'

-From what I've seen they're wallpaper says it!

[ONEBlackJellyFish]

Arch Linux.. the respect is imaginary but the breakages are real

[rayyanputra]

Arch Linux with KDE is like Windows 7 with Winstep Xtreme..

[miriveq]

Maybe this was asked before, but which distro do You prefer for netbooks and older computers?

[jorn1233]

@miriveq lmde xfce is also great imo. that's what i'm using on my netbook

[miriveq]

@jorn1233 im still fairly new to linux so i try to stick with ubuntu based systems, but once i get more comfortable with it ill def try debian based rolling releases. thanks!

[bkovacs7]

Hence why Arch Linux will never be used in a corporate enviroment. The installer is a joke!. All terminal command line based!. If it was GUI based, you would get way more adoption. Such a nice distro hampered by a command line installer. If you got only one system, you better have allot of ink and paper to print all those install notes, before you attempt it. I can have Kubuntu, openSuse, PCLinuxOS, etc installed in about 20-30 minutes with updates. This would take me about half a day.

[tchanabc]

@bkovacs7 the arch linux installer is NOT command-line. it is a framework similar to what you see when you are installing Windows XP. the install guides you through the whole installation process.  :L

[YaseenNoorani]

@bkovacs7 I don't think it was meant to be really used in a corporate environment. It's mainly for those who like their distro tailored to their needs

[triplesquarednine]

@bkovacs7 the installer has nothing to do with why Arch wouldn't be used in corporate environments. The more important reasons would be the fact it is;

1. rolling release model

2. there is ZERO paid/commercial support ~ like Novell, Redhat, Oracle, etc offer.

3. Arch would take more time/effort/money to deploy

4. more time/effort/money to maintain - as updates/upgrades must be applied with care.

something tells me you don't actually work in IT/corp environment.

[74ryanwolf]

@bkovacs7 Yes.. because arch ships with Xorg... -_-

[tchanabc]

Sorry for the triple comment post but i freaking <3 your intermediate side videos. NixelPixel does the basics of ubuntu, OsGui ditched linux, ThisWeekinLinux stays in the enterprise/business side of linux, the mint team simplifies everything, the gnome team ruins everything, the ubuntu team does not care about its end users, the red hat team cares about their baby Fedora and $. :D

[tchanabc]

Keep up the intermediate-Linux side tutorials like arch, Gentoo, and, Debian Etc! Also, i'm glad you did not choose to install Gnome 3.x.x. Maybe i will use gnome 4 or 5 or maybe 6...

[tchanabc]

Dear infinitelyGalatic, I would like to make a request that you teach your viewers how to install proprietary hardware such as broadcom wireless drivers and ATI drivers.  In addition to proprietary software, can you also teach us how to compile and install open-source drivers? +1 if you would like to learn how to properly install your hardware :D

Thank You

Regards, Timothy

[pbcyanide]

how is intel's graphics doing in arch or linux in general ? i was thinking of buying some ultrabook with ivy bridge and they will have pretty decent graphics (intel hd 4000 i think, it can even run some games like LoL and Trine) so I was wondering how's intel's progression with graphic drivers for linux ?

[HomeInventors]

@Ninjajedi You depend on all the easy noob friendly crap. Listen here, arch provides a simple command line setup. You decide what you want. Now if you hate arch leave and go back to your Ubuntu and Debian stuff

[thowd11]

How is the wireless manager in kde? I always seem to have problems with it connecting to hidden networks and such

[1961raver]

great, thanks

[ilikewebm]

my distro :D do you know webupd8. org? a good blog ...

Arch rulez, but sometimes it crashes, but you are always able to fix it :D

My system runs on a ssd and btrfs :D

[jmac217x]

`makepkg -Si` is all you need for the AUR packages if you don't want to use yaourt

[sameyieyir]

yah i like this review more than all of your previous videos

it has more useful info in it

kepp it like this why

and dont ruin your own channels

with based distros unless it has real things to talking about

real things real things not one thing

best wishes to you

[bajaykumar]

which editing s/w you use for your videos?

[kelseyjudson]

Switching to Arch last year totally changed my perspective on the Linux world.

[RomelloSkuggs]

Always the most professional presentation, thanks

[Mkbu]

What about a tutorial how to install ArchLinux 2011.08.19 since there are some changes and I'm having some issues with keyrings/sync & update repos/etc

Kind regards.

[MrAlexanderHoff]

Arch is exactly what I want. You set up everything yourself(you only install what you want), it is rolling release with very new packages, the AUR, and you never have to reinstall it(unless you do something wrong lol) just use "pacman -Syu" to update the system.

[0goodoldbismarck0]

You really deserve more views. Good work! :)

[Linux4UnMe]

Good Stuff mate. Well Done

[broederjacobs]

The problem with the rolling release part is that the NVidia driver I need doesn't support Linux >2.6 and Xorg >1.10 :s

[SlaptMan]

Anyone know how to fix the udev problem?Wifi stop working after updating the udev!I tried to keep it from updating but it did not work..any help much appreciated.

[ussnooky]

I've tried to setup Arch in VM, that was a nightmare, I'm not a terminal man.

In term of perfomance and stability, how do you rate: KDE version of opensuse, fedora, Arch and kububtu?

kubuntu was a bit buggy for me. thx

[dimbas41159]

Cool review! And nice wallpaper

[avalanche8700]

Amazing (both the review and the distro), in a past review i said that you should have shown us around a bit more.....you've managed to do this here.

[InfinitelyGalactic]

@avalanche8700 Thanks again for the feedback. Keep it comin' ;-)

[darkodelta]

I prefer GNOME but KDE is cool as well. Nice review.

[dimbas41159]

@darkodelta I used to prefer Gnome, but with all this Shell/Cinnamon/Mate stuff I'm really, really starting to look on KDE, mostly because of it's customizability. BTW, Dolphin is the best!

[joe4ska]

Arch is simply awesome and I finally installed yaourt after this video. Thanks.

[NinjaJedi]

Arch does have in fact the have by and far the WORST userbase of all Linux distributions. Elitist children who think that running a command makes them uber l337 Haxorz. It's not user friendly like Ubuntu or Suse, it's not suited for servers like CentOS or Debian, and it's too straightforward for hobbyists who would more likely enjoy Gentoo or LFS.

In fact I can personally say that the collective autism of the Arch userbase is what continues to perpetuate the myth that GNU/linux is for nerds.

[FeelItRising]

2 laptops and 2 desktops all run arch + kde. KDE 4.8 was an impressive leap of awesomeness. I didn't notice much from 4.6-7 but 4.7-8 was tremendous.

Arch is very easy to install. read the beginners guide and do it in a virtualbox a couple of times if you want and then go for it. It is hard for me to go to a non rolling distro now, going backwards is hard to do.

[1thebestnameever]

@pbcyanide lol I know. Just throwing it out there for laughs. Is BackTrack based on Kubuntu? I thought it was based on regular Ubuntu, since it has GNOME as well. Maybe I'm just stupid, though. :P

[ryebread761]

I think the hardest part of setting up arch has to be the Internet.

[velja27]

Nice review.

[SeltsamerAttraktor]

The 137 again.... every friggin day at least once....

[blackoutworm]

Are there any AUR alternatives for Ubuntu based distros?

Or can I do some tweaking and use AUR on my pinguy installation?

That repository looks very complete.

[hfsjansharr]

Cool. 'ThisWeekinLinux' channel also has an outstanding tutorial on Arch VirtualBox install.

[SeltsamerAttraktor]

I see your arch and raise a cosh.

[AccidentalMisfire09]

I'm more of a Gnome fan, but this KDE looks nice! :D

[HomeInventors]

Don't be a fan boy of arch or Debian. In the end one person likes arch other likes Debian. I personally like both because arch helped me learn some shit, Debian is stable and I used it longer

[HomeInventors]

Debian is extremely amazing, I have used it for years. Arch excels in teaching you more about the Command line. I prefer arch cuz I like its AUR, how I choose what I want and if I want to keep it or not, etc. If you say arch excels in nothing then clearly you haven't tried it for a year or two as ur main OS, if you say Debian sucks.... Well then 5 words You. Are. A. Dumbass.

Noob friendly Linux OS's like Ubuntu and mint kinda get you into the feel of Linux. When you move to the less user

[gzenum]

Great review Sir :)

[AlavHar]

PLEASE SOMEBODY MAKE AN INSTALLATION TUTORIAL!! :D :D I BEG YOU, SOMEBODY :D :D

[tostoday]

Perhaps I will refrain from recommended this to Windows users :).

[InfinitelyGalactic]

@tostoday Umm...yes. You would save someone major headaches by doing so. :-)

[AtomicSaturn]

Absolutely fantastic review, well done sir.

[jaghatarmittjobb2]

That's a lot of bible.

[ErebosNetherDarkness]

"Arch Linux is pretty much the most advanced yet technically beautiful of the linux OSs"?

Arch is EASY... it has nothing on Gentoo or Slackware. And the thing I hate the most about it is that most of its users are HUGE fanboys who preach the superiority of Arch over the "newb friendly" distros like Ubuntu or the "stable powerhouses" like Debian. Debian is the UNREFUTED king of Linux distros - most used Linux OS by far. And Arch is like a child's toy compared to Gentoo. Arch excels at nothing.

[triplesquarednine]

@ErebosNetherDarkness

Archlinux is easily better than Slackware, and gentoo is great - but if i want to run Arch like a source-distro - that's not a problem - and rebuilding the entire system is MUCH faster than Gentoo, IMO ~ ABS is better than ports, and the AUR kicks ass. I used Gentoo for a few years ~ and Arch is much nicer.

as of day debian is #4 on distro-watch (not the king), Arch is #6. Slack is 9 and gentoo didn't even make the list.

cont'd...

[ErebosNetherDarkness]

@triplesquarednine Distrowatch counts page hit rankings, so it's not a measure, but still: Mint is no1 (Debian based) and Ubuntu is no2 (Debian based). Debian is king, and your refusal to accept it makes you just another one of the Arch fanboy zerg. By the way, Debian is also the no.1 server OS on the PLANET. Just saying.

ABS may be quicker, but it's not nearly as powerful as portage. Not to mention the architecture support is pathetic in comparison.

Sucks for you and your toy distro, fanboy.

[triplesquarednine]

@ErebosNetherDarkness mint/ubuntu are shite. so are the majority of ubuntu-based distros. From 12yrs working in IT, specifically with *nix systems (and MS too) - straight up RPM distro's dominate 'enterpise' NOT debian...I've yet to run into a company (personally) using debian..

I don't have any quams with debian, but honestly, i don't see why your panties are in a bunch...

ABS and pkgbuilds are *just* as powerful as portage. straight up. it's a better way to go.

[triplesquarednine]

@ErebosNetherDarkness ...cont'd

Let's put it this way, if i was stuck using Debian or any of it's derivatives (including Ubuntu/mint/etc) - I wouldn't even bother with Linux and would stick with MacOSX. ...and in my experience, debian really isn't the stable powerhouse you say it is, otherwise we would see it widely used in enterprise ~ but it's not really used all that much.

Arch excels at nothing??

sounds like you're just a hater and a troll to me.

[ErebosNetherDarkness]

@triplesquarednine MacOSX: So, you would use a COPY of a free OS. Which is also overpriced. And comes with less powerful hardware for more money. Right. Seems smart.

Debian is not used in enterprise? It's the most widely installed OS on servers worldwide. That's enterprise. The market share of other OSs pales in comparison. And if you count Debian's derivatives as being Debian (which you should), it makes it even more popular.

So what does Arch excel at? Making you think you know Linux?

[triplesquarednine]

@ErebosNetherDarkness If you want to whine about money that's fine - that just makes you look like your a cheap whiny little baby... I like MacOSX, i'm into Proaudio and multimedia, ie: Protools, Ableton, Photoshop, etc - Mac is the better platform (over windows) - so what's yer problem, exactly?!? What a small-minded little duche you are.

again, RPM distro's own 'enterprise' NOT debian! not even close, bud.

but feel free to post data to support your claims.



[triplesquarednine]

@ErebosNetherDarkness Arch excels at me having a system that is tailored exactly how i want it. it functions as both a meta and source distro, it's bleeding-edge. some of the best wiki's and forum. AUR kicks ass. even some of the license issues / workarounds are better in Arch. ie: nvidia patching for RT, enabled float-point support in mesa, etc.

FYI Arch doesn't aim to take the server market. Arch excels at whatever YOU excel at.

you're just a troll and a hater.

[calrogman]

@triplesquarednine Good thing Arch doesn't aim at the server market, because any sysadmin who uses a rolling release distro on a server should be shot.

[triplesquarednine]

@calrogman I couldn't agree more. Rolling releases tend to require a little extra care, and often more maintenance... I use CentOS at work ~ nice and reliable for our servers.

[Videotubelord]

@ErebosNetherDarkness Maybe yoiu right, maybe you not, but now you just sounded like Gentoo fanboy lol.

[notahater554]

i wonder if i should use linux or windows

[andamat]

Nice review, you're really good at this:-) I do admit I get a little bit of Arch envy every now and then, mostly because of the aur. But, there's the eternal dilemma of rolling or not rolling. There are upsides and downsides to both, and I have used Debian testing/sid for over a year without any real issues. But, I find myself leaning more and more towards the twice a year thing. My distro of choice atm is Fedora, which, ironically, is arguably less stable and less user friendly than Arch;-)

[Krspjoseph]

what are you pc specs?

[InfinitelyGalactic]

@Krspjoseph Quad core i7, 8Gb Ram, 2Gb Nvidia GT 540m Graphics. Dell XPS 15

[SerbiaVlog]

@InfinitelyGalactic will you make a review of "Linux Deepin 11.12", and compare it with luninux?

[TeruMikami5432]

@InfinitelyGalactic very nice there

[Deliciousfruit233]

One of my favorite distributions. I can set it up exactly how I want, and the dependency system isn't a huge clusterfuck of bloat like in Debian.

[MetalxShredder600]

i really wanna use arch linux, but i want to basically clone my pinguy 11.10 install, and use arch as the base, instead of ubuntu. Hopefully one day soon, this will happen

[1thebestnameever]

@InfinitelyGalactic You should mess around with BackTrack 5. lol

[pbcyanide]

@1thebestnameever bt5 is just kubuntu loaded with tools for pentesting... it has it's own user base (mostly script kiddies wanting scripts and how tos to hack neighbor wlan and ppl who really know about networks, exploits, scripts and stuff)... bt is not intended to be everyday distro nor it's intended to be used by everyone

[CodesHD]

Is linux a good OS

[xig08B6]

Dude I love your videos! Quick, clean, to the point. I've been itching to try out arch for a long time now but just have not built up the confidence to dive into the installation instructions. Haha wish me luck. I look forward to seeing your android app reviews! peace

[BeyBladeHQ]

good review!

[triplesquarednine]

1st comment and 1st view!!! :)

Arch is THE BEST!

[InfinitelyGalactic]

@triplesquarednine Whoa, that was quick...well done :-)

[BrandurJustinussen]

@triplesquarednine It's alright.

[triplesquarednine]

@BrandurJustinussen After 10yrs of using Linux ~ it's the ONLY distro that I would ever use, other than CentOS at work.

but when i say it's 'the best', that is of course ~ my opinion.

For all i know you may prefer Mint or Ubuntu - which i would never use...

...or for all i know ~ you might prefer gentoo ;)

cheerz