5 ms·

Well of course you fixed your arch install in a matter of an hour, you're a Haskell developer.

laumars 5y ago
I’m not a Haskell developer and Arch is my goto Linux precisely because it’s on the of easiest distros to fix when things go wrong. YMMV but the snide remark is definitely unjustified.
- idealmedtech 5y ago
  That's been my experience with Arch as well. I've only seen a handful of actual breakages in my time (using consistently since 2016), and there's _always_ a good discussion with a manual fix available within a few hours, or a few days if you want to stick to official update channels. Plus KDE Plasma has become such a joy to use! I repurposed my T530 as a media center with a wireless keyboard and it's been a fantastic experience
  - pdimitar 5y ago
    Out of curiosity, what's your media center setup?
    - idealmedtech 5y ago
      The physical setup is very simple: just the laptop wired through miniDP to the TV, laptop sits behind the TV on a little wardrobe and has its screen turned off. I have various handbraked movies (not for distribution, only my personal usage) and shows that I view in VLC, plus a gigabit Ethernet connection that is more than enough for HD streaming. I keep it simple, just have a standard desktop install of Arch with Plasma. Lets me also do work on the machine, writing code here and there, checking emails etc. The living room setup is much easier on my back for extended work sessions as compared to my office chair.
      - pdimitar 5y ago
        Same reasoning here, my back is not well and even though I am starting physiotherapy in a few days, I am looking for a setup I can actively practice from a couch-like position. Even bought a very nice and sturdy (and comfy) folding bed. And will soon order a lap desk. Makes me a bit salty because the Steelcase Gesture is an absolutely EXCELLENT chair and I paid a lot for it but... health is more important. Hopefully I will be using it more in the future if my physiotherapy progresses well. Thank you for the anecdote. I am pondering Manjaro with XFCE but might look at KDE Plasma as well; a lot of people praise it.
        idealmedtech 5y ago
        The best DE is the one that YOU like, I was an avid XFCE user for many many years! Good luck resolving your back problems, it's a long journey. here's a (temporary) image of this very setup: https://i.imgur.com/YBRlvkF.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YBRlvkF.jpg
        pdimitar 5y ago
        Heh, what a (1) lovely and a (2) meta comment, love it! Thanks a bunch for making me smile. :)
pdimitar 5y ago
Anecdote: I use Manjaro on my home server and on a laptop and it's rock-solid. Not sure why people look down on Arch, I only had good experiences and I'm very far from a seasoned sysadmin.
- unixhero 5y ago
  I don't look down on Arch at all. I came from the yesteryears of using Slackware Linux. It was a lot of work. I learnt a lot of course. But I won't do that again. Arch is much much more modern and elegant, but still requires some handholding. The Arch Wiki is a pearl. I tried Manjaro and was mightily impressed, it was a breeze. I might go back to that on a multi boot machine. Cheers.
- dTal 5y ago
  People look down on Arch because the stability story is catastrophic, and Arch users deny that because they have low standards: Parent was surprised that "Somehow the upgrade didn't completely hose everything" after only 2 years of no updates. It "just" took them "an hour of babysitting it" through cyclic dependency headaches. Child comments proudly proclaim "only seen a handful of actual breakages" (since 2016) and "on the of easiest distros to fix when things go wrong". Compare to my dad's laptop, which has been running Debian for about a decade and often goes multi-year stretches without updates, and has never broken. Not once. That's the kind of performance I expect from an OS.
  - iamevn 5y ago
    fwiw I've gotten a debian install to the point where I'd rather wipe and reinstall than fix thanks to a combination of pinning, bad pip hygeine (why oh why is global install default), and not being sure where to go to learn how to untangle the mess I'd created. Sure I was a lot less experienced but there's something to be said for arch giving me enough tools and information that I actually feel like I can fix whatever comes up.

I’m not a Haskell developer and Arch is my goto Linux precisely because it’s on the of easiest distros to fix when things go wrong. YMMV but the snide remark is definitely unjustified.

idealmedtech 5y ago
That's been my experience with Arch as well. I've only seen a handful of actual breakages in my time (using consistently since 2016), and there's _always_ a good discussion with a manual fix available within a few hours, or a few days if you want to stick to official update channels. Plus KDE Plasma has become such a joy to use! I repurposed my T530 as a media center with a wireless keyboard and it's been a fantastic experience
- pdimitar 5y ago
  Out of curiosity, what's your media center setup?
  - idealmedtech 5y ago
    The physical setup is very simple: just the laptop wired through miniDP to the TV, laptop sits behind the TV on a little wardrobe and has its screen turned off. I have various handbraked movies (not for distribution, only my personal usage) and shows that I view in VLC, plus a gigabit Ethernet connection that is more than enough for HD streaming. I keep it simple, just have a standard desktop install of Arch with Plasma. Lets me also do work on the machine, writing code here and there, checking emails etc. The living room setup is much easier on my back for extended work sessions as compared to my office chair.
    - pdimitar 5y ago
      Same reasoning here, my back is not well and even though I am starting physiotherapy in a few days, I am looking for a setup I can actively practice from a couch-like position. Even bought a very nice and sturdy (and comfy) folding bed. And will soon order a lap desk. Makes me a bit salty because the Steelcase Gesture is an absolutely EXCELLENT chair and I paid a lot for it but... health is more important. Hopefully I will be using it more in the future if my physiotherapy progresses well. Thank you for the anecdote. I am pondering Manjaro with XFCE but might look at KDE Plasma as well; a lot of people praise it.
      - idealmedtech 5y ago
        The best DE is the one that YOU like, I was an avid XFCE user for many many years! Good luck resolving your back problems, it's a long journey. here's a (temporary) image of this very setup: https://i.imgur.com/YBRlvkF.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YBRlvkF.jpg
        pdimitar 5y ago
        Heh, what a (1) lovely and a (2) meta comment, love it! Thanks a bunch for making me smile. :)

pdimitar 5y ago

Anecdote: I use Manjaro on my home server and on a laptop and it's rock-solid. Not sure why people look down on Arch, I only had good experiences and I'm very far from a seasoned sysadmin.

unixhero 5y ago
I don't look down on Arch at all. I came from the yesteryears of using Slackware Linux. It was a lot of work. I learnt a lot of course. But I won't do that again. Arch is much much more modern and elegant, but still requires some handholding. The Arch Wiki is a pearl. I tried Manjaro and was mightily impressed, it was a breeze. I might go back to that on a multi boot machine. Cheers.
dTal 5y ago
People look down on Arch because the stability story is catastrophic, and Arch users deny that because they have low standards: Parent was surprised that "Somehow the upgrade didn't completely hose everything" after only 2 years of no updates. It "just" took them "an hour of babysitting it" through cyclic dependency headaches. Child comments proudly proclaim "only seen a handful of actual breakages" (since 2016) and "on the of easiest distros to fix when things go wrong". Compare to my dad's laptop, which has been running Debian for about a decade and often goes multi-year stretches without updates, and has never broken. Not once. That's the kind of performance I expect from an OS.
- iamevn 5y ago
  fwiw I've gotten a debian install to the point where I'd rather wipe and reinstall than fix thanks to a combination of pinning, bad pip hygeine (why oh why is global install default), and not being sure where to go to learn how to untangle the mess I'd created. Sure I was a lot less experienced but there's something to be said for arch giving me enough tools and information that I actually feel like I can fix whatever comes up.