 Hey, everybody welcome back to the channel today. I'm going to be talking a little bit about arch Linux now for those of you Who don't know I mean and I'm sure most people know who watch this channel I actually do know Arch is a rolling release meaning that it is constantly updated unlike something like Ubuntu which has a scheduled release System where they go through and release every two years and have a long-term support and all that stuff Arch isn't like that arch has constant updates to programs meaning it's always on the bleeding edge of software and kernels and all that stuff The question becomes if you're an arch user is how often should you update so? This is a fine line to walk in a lot of ways because if you update too often chances are you'll Always be on the front end of anything that breaks. So if they're every once in a while, there'll be some kind of show stopping bug like a Package that conflicts with another dependency or something You know it happens and most often within a few hours if you go to arch linux.org you'll see on their front page Hey, we have this problem. This is how to fix it Usually it's by deleting something so that it can be uploaded or downloaded properly. So if you update like every day Chances are you're going to be on that Bleeding really truly bleeding edge and you're gonna be the most affected by anything that goes wrong if on the other end of The spectrum you update once a year You're gonna get all those problems at once and you'll have to go through and go to arch linux.org and Scroll through all the fixes that have happened over the last year and then try to fix them and figure out If there are any conflicting packages and all this stuff and it Chances are it's going to be a complete failure to update. So the question becomes how long Should you wait between updates? You really don't want to be the person who updates five times a day and you don't want to be the person who waits a year or longer so the if you ask this question on Ubuntu or on reddit, you'll get tons and tons of different answers. So This right here does it every day This person here does it five times a day Apparently he's a little disappointed when there's nothing new which is Understandable, I mean you use arch linux because you like new shiny things This person does it every Friday evening mostly so this person has you know either has scheduled it to do themselves or has done some kind of Crown job to do it And they do it because then they can fix any breakage on the weekends this person never This one there. I just re-install from scratch whenever I see something interesting Don't be that person Don't be that person. It was just cause you painted misery This person does nightly daily, I think that's probably going to be the most common answer so What's the right answer and this is one of those things where there's really not any right answer I personally update every four days That gives me enough time to see, you know, if there's any show stopping bugs and let them be fixed It also lets there be some updates to actually be there now. I run Manjaro, so I'm not on stock arch linux anymore and Manjaro's Repos are a little bit different that they're slowed down quite a bit. So Everything the arch Linux does kind of goes through a filter before it gets to Manjaro So like right now I have zero updates and I haven't updated in three or four days The last time I updated I only had three now if arc. I was on arco before and Oftentimes I Would have three or four hundred updates every four days and That's just the way arch Linux is and now you got to remember Arco is a lot different because not arco comes out of the box with a ton and stuff installed And then I used it for six months or whatever and it's all the whole bunch of stuff by the time I was ready to hop distros. I had almost 3,000 packages and all those things could get updated You know constantly so that's not everyone's experience with arch linux, but that was mine And arco is basically arch linux just you know with a whole bunch of stuff, right and a gooey installer That's gonna piss a lot of arch people off because as an arch is not Arco is not arch linux. It's just a offshoot. Oh Yeah, you're right, but fuck off. I don't care Like I'm using Manjaro right now I consider myself an arch user because it's basically arched. It's just using a slightly different Repositories, you know, whatever that we can get into the snombishness of arch linux users later If you know, we really want to for me four days seems to be the best frequency of the updates And I think that's probably for most people even if you're just on vanilla arch four days seems to be about the sweet spot You wait any longer than that You're gonna have you know a gigabyte of updates or two gigabytes or three gigabytes or whatever if you update sooner than that You know, like I said, you're more likely to Be on that really truly bleeding edge and be subject to every single bug that comes, you know your way now there is another thing to think about when you are Thinking about updating and that's your bandwidth if you are on Low bandwidth like plan or whatever for your internet You probably would want to update more often It's kind of a pair paradox because you wouldn't think you'd want to update as often But if you wait longer, you're gonna have more to download. So Chances are if you waited like a week, you probably have at least a gigabyte Maybe even more to download and especially if you're on a bandwidth limited plan or you have really slow speeds The more you download the longer it's going to take but it's also will be, you know It'll rack up against your bandwidth cap or whatever and that could be an issue So for those of you who are on an internet plan that doesn't necessarily have unlimited or has really slow speeds You're gonna have to kind of play around with how often you update be based on how much how many updates you have to download because it's really going to be, you know Personally, I think if you're on a if you're on an internet plan that is Really low capped or is really slow. I don't know that I would use arch If you want to use an arch based distro, I try Manjaro because they have fewer updates Or I just stick with something like Ubuntu because Ubuntu is only going to update every so often You don't have to worry about it Even if you don't do any security updates between the big major ones in April and October You're still gonna be fine, you know, because then you only have to do it once a year You can just kind of plan around it. That would be my, you know piece of advice. I know arch is cool And you know, you kind of want to be part of the club. So maybe you'll have to figure out, you know, what's worth it You know, like I said for me four days seems to be to be the sweet spot if you are on a derivative of arch Like Manjaro or Arco, you have to pay attention because your updates cycle and updates themselves are going to be different. So For example, Arco has its own Repositories that it adds in in addition to everything the arch does. So you're going to get more updates Manjaro seems to have less because they're delayed but again, you have Manjaro repositories that you have to check for updates because They're different than the arch ones. So that that is also going to play into your decision on when to update your system because Especially if you're not like I said, you're worried about how many updates you have Now the last thing I want to talk about is Your Tendency to be excited about updates now when you if you first update or you first install Arch Linux you're going to be very entertained every time an update comes in because you're kind of it's new and shiny and stuff once you've used Arch for a while that goes away Updating becomes a process. It comes a chore It's no longer like oh my goodness. There's a new version of LibreOffice there Whoo, you know most of the time when I get a new version of LibreOffice I won't install it for a while because every time I install LibreOffice the spell checking goes to shit and You know I Don't know how to spell things and I end up having whole bunch of problems. So if when you first install Arch I would say just withhold your enthusiasm just a bit on updates because if you are so enthusiastic all the time about Updating your system. You're going to update two or three times a day Because oh, there's something new. Oh, there's something new Especially if you're like you have an update counter or something in your your task manager or your bar or whatever you're using Yeah, and it tells you oh you have updates. Oh, you have updates Oh, you have updates you can kind of become obsessed with Updating them over and over again and again That's going to put you on that bleeding really truly bleeding edge And you're going to be subject to every single bug that comes out of every Repository that you're you're subscribed to and Especially for new users That's not a great thing because new users aren't necessarily going to know how to fix any bugs that they encounter and now I personally think that When you encounter a bug, it's good for you because it encourages you to go Google something and learn how to fix it But most of the time when people When noobs experience a bug for the first time if they can't fix it in the first five minutes They're distro hopping it's like screw this my computer doesn't no longer work. I'm going somewhere else I did that as a noob. Hell I do that. I still do that sometimes because if I if I Reach if I find some Problem that I just can't seem to fix like last time it was a weird thing with Pycom. I just hop and Maybe that's not the way that you should do it, but that's just the you know the noob way so Just if your new arched user hold off a little bit on your enthusiasm for updates update every four or five days You'll be happy. Yes, you'll have more updates to deal with and you're still going to experience some bugs but you won't Have to wait for them to be fixed because chances are they'll either be a fix already waiting for you in the You know the update queue or they'll be a fix on arch Linux.org. They'll tell you hey This is happening. This is how to fix it. Usually it's two lines. That's usually the way arch bugs happen Especially update bugs. Anyways, so that is it for this video. I can't believe I got 12 minutes out of this topic If you if you liked it, give it a thumbs up if you didn't give it a thumbs down If you'd want to support the channel, you can do so The easiest way is to subscribe and hit the notification icon. Well, we're trying to eat to a thousand subscribers by the end of the year every subscribe subscriber makes me astonishingly happy. I mean I just Seriously, I check it more times seriously Subscribers on YouTube have become the new arch Linux updates because I check them way too often Anyways, you can also support us on patreon at patreon.com slash Linux cast. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time