Arch Linux

So, I downloaded the Arch Linux .iso and got to work installing it on my tester PC. Install was relatively painless, (suprisingly fast might I add), it had me selecting exactly the packages I wanted which was a nice touch, then had me edit my own config files, which struck me as kind of opaque for newbie users. I had no problem having done them all before, but I'd imagine someone less experienced being a little put off. Everything is well documented on their site (http://archlinux.org), they have quite an impressive wiki going there.

Now. How does it run then? Not too badly, I had the usual trouble with Xorg not finding drivers and what-not (right now that computer is still X-less...) but thats more my fault than Arch's, I chose to install an sshd too, and that doesn't work for some reason, keep getting an error when I try to login remotely. Thats another day's problem though... Pacman (Arch's wonderfully named package manager) seems alright, took me a while to figure out to be honest, I'm used to apt-get.

Conclusion: Quite a nice distro if you know what you're doing, if you're comfortable with editing config files yourself then go for it!

Arch Linux

I've been thinking recently about how I'd like to have a look at a new distro, after about a year now of using Debian Etch I'd like a change. So, after looking at Gentoo and not really liking it (I'm a busy man and don't have time to compile everything from source!) I've settled on trying Arch Linux, with its promises of being nice and light and configurable. So, tonight I'll download the .iso and I'll let everyone know how it goes. I wouldn't have to download it myself if Steve had just brought me in the install disk today in school but no. He forgot. Friends eh?