Arch Reviews & Product Details

Arch is best if you want to have full control over your Linux environment. The rolling release style of updates mean that you almost never need to reinstall. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is a steep learning curve using Arch, over other distros, like Suse or Red Hat. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

You always have the latest version of any program.

It has an awesome wiki that helps with anything.

Very easy to customize (you install only what you want).

Huge software repositories, which provide any software you might want.

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Because it is rolling release, your installation might break sometimes.

Somewhat difficult to install and maintain for the first time.

Sometimes it is difficult to get help from the community as they aren't really that friendly to new users, it is recomended to start with other distros before Arch. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you get out-of-the-box in this distro?

Trick question: it doesn't come in a box. With Arch, you configure your operating system yourself. Arch Linux is simply the most vanilla you can get when it comes to Linux operating systems. Sure, a lot of people will discourage you to jump into it because of the steep learning curve, but it's absolutely worth it. It might take you an entire week to just install it, but just by getting into a tty terminal of your newly-installed system, you've already learned so much about how Linux works. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. With Arch, you're getting yourself in full control of your system, choosing all your configurations along the way and learning bits and pieces about how Linux and computers work in general.

Ultimately, the best thing about Arch is its simplicity and its philosophy. There is absolutely no bloat. All you ever start with are the essentials to make your computer beep. Just add what you need when you need it. And since you put everything together yourself, you can tailor each Arch installation specific to your needs. Need to install Arch on a 30-year-old laptop? Or perhaps you want a portable Arch installation on a 4GB thumb drive? Configure your system in the best way possible for your use-case.

Personally, I was attracted by Arch because I never really liked the window managers bundled with any OS ever. Replacing it with another leaves my system with unused packages I may never see again, and that just feels dirty to me.

The other beauty of Arch is its package repositories and the AUR. If it's on linux, you can probably bet that there is an Arch package for it. All the packages are just so diverse, and you can easily build your own PKGBUILD configurations if none exist for the program you need.

Lastly, Arch Linux is a rolling release distro. Personally, I find this as an advantage since it's much less of a hassle to upgrade especially when you can do it more often. It has been a very rare case that I break existing packages when upgrading, unlike on biannually-releasing distros like Ubuntu. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really can't say too much bad things about Arch Linux. Since it puts you in control of everything, it is only your fault if something goes wrong with your setup. This is the way Arch Linux is designed and the way that it should be used.

The biggest issue with Arch is perhaps the AUR being unmoderated. The AUR repository may be full of wonderful packages, but without prior knowledge and careful checking of each PKGBUILD, there is no way of knowing if the package you're installing is trying to get root access and doing some funky business with your system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to make the workstation do/be anything you need. Very good when "wearing multiple hats" and extremely customizable. Compared to Windows 10, it is several times faster and much more elegant in design and use. The AUR makes installing non-standard packages very easy. With pacman/AUR, you have many more options than with Ubuntu and APT. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes, package management is interrupted by conflicting files. This is not a real problem, but it takes about 10 minutes to fix when it happens. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It has a minimal memory footprint, allowing the system to work mostly on essential tasks.

Moreover, I like to have full control over system: Arch comes with a minimal CLI version; on top of this only the required packages are installed, in contrast with some more user-friendly distributions where all packages are installed, and then the user must delete all the non-required ones, often not being able to detect all of them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1. Installation is non-trivial.

2. Rolling release makes it hard to know when to update a packet, as newer version may not be entirely stable.

3. The number of officially supported packages is quite small, and it is often to use AUR

4. When the maintainer changes a package configuration file, the packet manager does not check for changes; thus it does not warn the user, asking the correct action to take. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

its got a really awesome wiki where you can know about every bit of the OS. from how to install to how to use a specific program. apart from that, the installed version is very minimal and one can add things according to his needs.

pacman is one of the simplest and easy to use packagemanager Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

for a new user, it's a little confusing and difficult to use but he can always read the wiki. by default, the wiki is only available online so if your net drivers are not working you might have little trouble. but there is a package available for keeping wiki offline too.

daily updates.if you fail to update it daily you might see a huge update in some time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Archlinux is the powerful baseline for Linux systems. You can include as little or as many features as you want. This makes it a good option for building sleek, fast systems. you can setup an Archlinux server to do exactly as you want, no more and no less. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Since it is a flexible system it also makes it very technical. While Archlinux has great documentation, it is a chore to setup. Unless your system needs the flexibility, Archlinux is often not worth the time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The package manager is simple and installs packages easily and without any hassle. The software is also cutting-edge and is updated frequently. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The installation process isn't automated and requires CLI usage. The cutting-edge nature means many things break however Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Arch is, by far, the best Linux distribution that I've ever tried. It gives me all the power to create a completely tailor-made installation on whatever device I happen to be on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The installation process is not as simple as it used to be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The fact that you can start with a bare bones install, and get to a functional system based on what you need rather than whats assumed users need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Microsoft firmware issues are a bit of a pain. But this is often a broad Linux support issue rather than an Arch Linux issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.