I was going to list a whole bunch of reasons why I’ll be switching from Ubuntu 11.10 to Arch Linux, but my decision really just comes down to 1 thing:
Ubuntu has gotten fat and lazy.
Actually, Ubuntu always was fat. It’s just that each subsequent install/upgrade seems to add more and more weight to the overall operating system. I may have said it before, but Ubuntu is starting to feel like the Windows of Linux distributions: bloated.
So, we’ll be test driving Arch Linux and its minimalist approach. Since I’ve never installed it before, I’m kind of expecting the process to be somewhere between Gentoo and Debian, but hopefully more Debian. Gentoo was a great learning experience, but god was it painful to install back in the day. Anyway, I’ll write about the experience next week or something. And if that doesn’t work out I might just drop everything and try a Hackintosh install.
One other reason why I think moving to Arch Linux will be a good thing: more focus on scripting and command line functions. See, as fat and lazy as Ubuntu is, it’s made me fat and lazy too. I need some more sweet command line action to sharpen my skills.
Later
I’ve done this switch, but from ubuntu 11.04 and I can say I’m entirely satisfied with the choice.
The installation is not as easy as debian, but still has no big complications associated with it, just remember to follow the tutorials on the arch linux wiki.
Hope you’ll make the switch successfully.
Hi, I switched to about half a year ago, but I am getting more and more frustrated by Arch. I like quite a few things about Arch, and I have the know-how to get scripts running and I am fluent with the command line interfact. I maintain two Arch packages, so I feel I have a right of speaking.
But nothing works as smoothly as on Ubuntu. Just a few examples. I use Openshot to make movies, but I have problems with sound support on both my Arch systems. Exactly the same movie renders fine on Ubuntu but has sound problems on Arch. The GTK UI elements do not work properly after my latest Arch system upgrade (buttons only appear when you move cursor over them, weird). Also, I had a problem with udev, but that is now fixed by the Arch community. I never got gnome3 to run on any of my computers (despite well support graphics card), it just crashes when logging in, so I use xfce4 (which I like better anyway). I have had problems with other applications as well.
I am sure all these problems can be fixed, and I like tinkering with my linux computers. But there is a limit to my time and patience, and if things do not improve, I am back to a more reliable distribution.
Am I the only one who has this sort of experience. I can only imagine there are more people out there.
update: but then, Ubuntu has its problems too. My Ubuntu 11.10 cannot run kdenlive, which is similar, if not better, to openshot, and it runs well on Arch. Sigh. Best seems to have multiple computers with various Linuxes. I am still in search for the perfect distro which has working and actual versions of software…
@Shemahmforash
Thanks for the heads up. Sometimes you do gotta RTFM.
@John
Thanks John. I know what you mean about trying to find the perfect distro. Does it even exist? I think that’s why alot of us are still chasing the dragon!