I could do an Animaniacs-esque "states of the world" for however many Linux distributions there are out there but mostly when people know I use Linux, they wonder why I use Arch. Well... I'll tell you.
Lets start with Ubuntu, as grand as it is, is quite a bit bloated in terms of the things I need. I also don't agree with the Ubuntu Base install because really... it's honestly no different than the current Debian testing and in reality... I don't like release-based distros. New release breaks things and twists things around too much whereas rolling release distributions like Arch and Debian let you install what the packages you need one-by-one as it slowly updates into the next release cycle.
But there's two solid reasons why I use Arch.
-New package is released by the developers of Flash, or Nexuiz or Java.
-It's in Arch's repositories the next day.
Or.
-There's some obscure package that no distribution would ever toss into their main repositories because it has absolutely nothing to do with the system itself.
For instance, lets say I wanted World of Goo.
>Terminal
>yaourt world goo
-Arch gives me a list of the various installation files for all packages labeled with "world" and "goo"
-I pick one, and the developer files on my system grab it from the Arch User Repository, build it from source and install it for me.
Wow, guys.
Just, wow.
To think that if a package doesn't exist, all I have to do is either request it or throw it in the repositories myself to get my hands on it. The AUR houses beta releases and SVN releases of all sorts of programs like VLC, Mplayer, games, all sorts of things that normally run quite a bit better as they are developed. That's a good thing, quite a good thing.
I've been extremely surprised at how rarely I ever have to go download an actual package from source manually from a browser. I'm almost to the point to where I could say that if you want it and it's a linux program, someone, somewhere has put it in there for some reason.
That's why I use Archlinux.
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Music for the day:
P.S. Hit me up for friend requests if you want.
You throw me some clicks, I'll throw you some.
To each their own!
So i found out what distro i am using finally, after reading one of your first posts. i believe it is called Backtracker 4 ( i think). looking into it, it kinda makes sense since the dude that hooked it up was way into hacking and the like.
ReplyDeleteProblems i had: these installation packages you are speaking about. it wanted me to download a bunch, and the wifi hadnt been made to work yet with that OS, so i gave up.
I will definately be giving Arch a look.
also, still cant receive those two messages from you. :( dont know what friend connects deal is.
ReplyDeleteIt's eh... damn It's under follow, reclick "follow" on my page and it should allow you to friend me somehow. It's a newer feature. I'm not too sure you could do it before a month or so ago.
ReplyDeleteHmm, maybe I should give Arch a closer look
ReplyDeleteI've only ever tried out Ubuntu. I was thinking about going with Linux when I upgrade my computer, I'll have to look into Arch some, this is the first time I've heard of it.
ReplyDeletegood post, im following and supporting
ReplyDelete