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I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. In 9 years running Arch, I have neve

by nextos 10y ago

I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. In 9 years running Arch, I have never ever experienced the need to downgrade my kernel after an upgrade, and only once had to downgrade a package (ghc). I key point was always to run hardware that needs no drivers aside from those coming with vanilla kernels. Quite on the contrary, I love getting new versions of things quickly as this means new features and bugfixes come to me ASAP. With that said, I am considering to migrate to NixOS or GuixSD (currently toying with 2 virtual machines). I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Declarative system configuration, declarative package recipes, and the ability to install multiple versions of the same package is key if you have a complex setup (e.g. doing deep learning).

edraferi 10y ago
> I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. > I am considering to migrate to NixOS or GuixSD (currently toying with 2 virtual machines). I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Declarative system configuration, declarative package recipes, and the ability to install multiple versions of the same package is key if you have a complex setup (e.g. doing deep learning). I've been eying NixOS, but haven't heard of GuixSD. I'll look into it, would be interested to hear your comparison. The main downside to NixOS seems to be package availability. I get the impression that you spend a lot of time repackaging things for it because the coverage isn't there yet.
- nextos 10y ago
  That was my impression about Nix, however mind that things are moving very very fast. NixPkgs is one of the top GitHub projects now by number of contributors. Loads of things are packaged. I think it's getting comparable to Arch plus AUR. GuixSD is a GNU version of NixOS, running on Guix package manager. Extremely neat, as it's written in Guile Scheme. They have most basic things packaged. Also, derivations are compatible with Nix ones, so you can use any Nix channel.
  - edraferi 10y ago
    Thanks for the reply, I'll give NixOS another look.
iamcreasy 10y ago
> I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Can you tell me more about what an imperative and functional distro is?
- mastax 10y ago
  Basically with most package managers you start from some base system and then execute commands which change the state of the system. With a functional system you describe what kind of system you would like and it gets built for you. See https://nixos.org/nixos/about.html https://nixos.org/nixos/about.html
Jerry2 10y ago
>I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. That made me laugh. Yesterday, when I updated Arch, it included new python 3.6 which not only broke half-a-dozen packages but it also disabled my DE. Arch breaks way more often than any other distro I've ever used.
heywire 10y ago
I run arch on one of my laptops because I like to tinker (and have the latest of everything), but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who wants to get work done. I run Ubuntu LTS on the laptop I rely on. Just last month a kernel update rendered my arch laptop unbootable. I had to boot from a live USB drive, revert the kernel, and temporarily blacklist the package from upgrading. What I love about arch is the community, and that awesome wiki.

by nextos 10y ago

edraferi 10y ago

> I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. > I am considering to migrate to NixOS or GuixSD (currently toying with 2 virtual machines). I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Declarative system configuration, declarative package recipes, and the ability to install multiple versions of the same package is key if you have a complex setup (e.g. doing deep learning). I've been eying NixOS, but haven't heard of GuixSD. I'll look into it, would be interested to hear your comparison. The main downside to NixOS seems to be package availability. I get the impression that you spend a lot of time repackaging things for it because the coverage isn't there yet.

nextos 10y ago
That was my impression about Nix, however mind that things are moving very very fast. NixPkgs is one of the top GitHub projects now by number of contributors. Loads of things are packaged. I think it's getting comparable to Arch plus AUR. GuixSD is a GNU version of NixOS, running on Guix package manager. Extremely neat, as it's written in Guile Scheme. They have most basic things packaged. Also, derivations are compatible with Nix ones, so you can use any Nix channel.
- edraferi 10y ago
  Thanks for the reply, I'll give NixOS another look.

iamcreasy 10y ago

> I find Arch to be a great imperative distro, but functional ones are simply superior. Can you tell me more about what an imperative and functional distro is?

mastax 10y ago
Basically with most package managers you start from some base system and then execute commands which change the state of the system. With a functional system you describe what kind of system you would like and it gets built for you. See https://nixos.org/nixos/about.html https://nixos.org/nixos/about.html

Jerry2 10y ago

>I agree Arch and rolling release is great to avoid breaks. Paradoxically, people are afraid of it for the opposite reason. That made me laugh. Yesterday, when I updated Arch, it included new python 3.6 which not only broke half-a-dozen packages but it also disabled my DE. Arch breaks way more often than any other distro I've ever used.

heywire 10y ago

I run arch on one of my laptops because I like to tinker (and have the latest of everything), but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who wants to get work done. I run Ubuntu LTS on the laptop I rely on. Just last month a kernel update rendered my arch laptop unbootable. I had to boot from a live USB drive, revert the kernel, and temporarily blacklist the package from upgrading. What I love about arch is the community, and that awesome wiki.