Arch Linux: a Ubuntu user's perspective

Installation

Installing +Arch Linux was honestly a little more work than I was expecting. I for some reason was under the impression that Arch LInux was a works out of the box sort of distro. I was sorely mistaken, installing Arch was a lot more like fighting balrogs; trying to get Gentoo working. Not the simple insert cd come back in 25 minutes and your done kind of install that I am accustomed to with +Ubuntu.

I had to try and try again to get grub2 to actually work, mostly because I wasn't very good at following directions... Though in my defense I believe that the installation guide for Arch could use a little clarifying.

I was somewhat suprised that after initial install Arch Linux has no network up by default. So after getting that worked out it was just a matter of installing the correct drivers for my wireless card, which I have to do in Ubuntu actually though the process much simpler, still not to big of a hassel.

After installing the desktop environment of my choice (xfce) and a desktop manager (gdm) I was a little suprised again that installing Xfce did not also install Xorg... I mean you would think that if you can't use Xfce without Xorg it would be a dependancy and the package manager would handle that for you.. oh well... After all this installing packages has been fairly straightforward and pacman seems to be a pretty decent package manager causing only minimal headaches.

The "Rolling Upgrade"

The one thing I do like about Arch that is missing from most other operating systems is this idea of the rolling upgrade. On Arch you are always just a 'pacman -Syu' away from the latest and greatest the open source software community has to offer. No need to worrry about upgrading to the latest release because you are always on the latest release.

Final Thoughts

Arch Linux is definately not for beginners, mostly just because of the relatively complex installation process and occasionally upgrading the system would break something like wireless. All and all I'd say I am happy with Arch Linux, though I am not willing to give up my first GNU/Linux love.

Comments

Lunch time in The Dirty!

The Dalles has quite a few restaurants relative to it's size. Some are great some are down right bad. These are my five favorite places to eat lunch in The Dalles in no particular order. Some are old favorites and others are relatively new establishments. All serve delicious food and drink. Montira's Thai Montira's is the only thai place in town. But that lack of competition doesn't keep them from delivering a quality product. Other restaurants of the Asian variety have them beat as far as portion size and price go but they serve a quality product consistently. I can't say that about many other places in town. Montira's serves really great food for a decent price. Just be warned if you ask for extra-spicy you will feel it all the next day... But its worth it if you really like spicy. Spooky's Spooky's is one of t...

Why I'm running for the parks board

Two months ago now I declared my candidacy for election to Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District Board of Directors Position Number Five. A mouth full of a title. I really enjoy our local parks and have no major qualms with the parks district or the current board. They have done a fine job maintaining and improving existing parks and programs. So there's question you are probably asking and I am required to ask myself. Why am I running? Democracy requires contest What is the point of an election with only one candidate? Without contested races there is almost no need for real public discourse unless some controversy springs up. This is all too common for local elections in Wasco County. Uncontested races are akin to a business handing a job to the first and only applicant. This wouldn't work in the private sector and it shouldn't work for public offices. Surely the citi...

What I learned from being a stay at home, homeschooling, dance dad.

I was recently subjected to some kind of a sick experiment, in which all my free time was completely taken away, my rights to privacy relinquished. I survived at the mercy of an oligarchical panel of tiny despots. Yes, I was a stay at home parent. It isn't as easy as I thought. I don’t know about other homeschooling parents but I have a very picturesque view of how things should go. Children gathered around listening intently to unabridged classic literature. My six year old asking thoughtful questions about historical figures and the times and places in which they lived. With the utmost patience and joy my kids sounding out words of poetry, naturally learning phonetic rules in beautiful rhythm. We'd have nature walks every afternoon with plenty of time for music and art. By now you can probably tell, I don’t do most of the schooling in my house. Turns out my fantastic idea of how homeschooling should be was jus...

Mr. Polehn writes

Search This Blog