I run ArchLinux and never look back

kindu smith malaizhichun at tom.com
Tue Jun 9 13:28:50 UTC 2020


archlinux is the only Unix-like operating system that I run on my
laptop. The reason I chose archlinux is because

First of all, it is a rolling release, so everything is up-to-date,
gcc10.1.0, clang10, gnome3.36.2, kernel 5.7.1. So there is nothing to
stop my love of archlinux.although I don’t know how to keep it up to
date , But it’s the latest

Secondly, it drives all my hardware, including sound card, nvidia
graphics card, wireless network card, screen brightness and touchpad.

Third, its package manager pacman is very powerful and rock-solid.
Unlike debian's apt and dpkg, it needs to handle a lot of dependencies,
and onlyone pacman can handle all.

Fourth, it uses systemd, so it starts quickly. The inspiration for
systemd is based on maccos launchd, which is even better than it. And
there is no need to buy Apple's expensive hardware, it is plug-and-
play, such as usb drive inserted into the notebook can be quickly
recognized. I don't care if it violates the unix philosophy, because
who cares.

Fifth, it is highly customizable, you can install xfce, gnome, kde and
other desktops, unlike ubuntu, which only contains gnome by default.
And it can set up its own partition, only in my system is divided
several partitions/, /boot ,Swap, /home  , and always stable, there is
no useless partition like ubuntu.

devtmpfs 8114488 0 8114488 0% /dev
tmpfs 8133452 424008 7709444 6% /dev/shm
tmpfs 8133452 10240 8123212 1% /run
tmpfs 8133452 0 8133452 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/nvme0n1p2 212600300 39263488 162467668 20% /
tmpfs 8133452 16 8133436 1% /tmp
/dev/sda1 1921802500 112952664 1711157776 7% /home
/dev/nvme0n1p1 1046512 102208 944304 10% /boot
tmpfs 1626688 20 1626668 1% /run/user/120
tmpfs 1626688 32 1626656 1% /run/user/1002
tmpfs 1626688 0 1626688 0% /run/user/0


Sixth, it is stable, as stable as debian and freebsd.

Seventh, it exists a wiki. Although I don’t understand what it’s
talking about most of the time, it provides a way to solve problems.

Eighth, it also has a community-based source code package, AUR. Unlike
freebsd's concentration, it is more decentralized, but it solves many
of my problems.

Ninth, it is small, and there are not so many useless dependency
packages installed, that no taking up a lot of disk space.

Tenth, it is based on X86, of course, it can also drive the server, but
few people try. Because it is only based on X86, it made my notebook a
good experience.

Of course, I also run freebsd in my oracle VM virtualbox, freebsd is
also my favorite operating system, its structure is even better, but it
is not available. The touchpad, nvidia graphics card, and wireless
network card are not recognized, and the screen cannot adjust the
brightness. In addition, its startup code feels back to the 90s. I
think archlinux's ok startup is more fascinating. It made me realize
that I was running a stable unix system, not a mess of code. I also
don't like gnu's grub, freebsd's btx bootloader seems better.

I have also tried ghostbsd. Although sysctl hw.acpi can be set to
adjust the screen brightness, it is not as ready to use as archlinux.

I mean, compared to archlinux, the structure of freebsd seems to be
better, but it is not as good as archlinux. I will continue to run
archlinux on my physical machine, and only learn freebsd in the virtual
machine.



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