Arch Linux

You cannot unsee the fat man with a triangle on his shoulders.

Arch Linux is a rolling release distribution of GNU/Linux focusing on minimalism, simplicity, and elegance. Arch is often used by advanced users in light of its relatively difficult installation process. Arch is a distribution favored by the /g/ community for ricing.

If you're looking for some troubleshooting with Arch, go take a look at the ArchWiki and/or Arch Linux Forums. They're very useful.

Why Use Arch Linux?

• Minimalist installation process
• Near-complete customization
• Excellent package management
• Offers bleeding-edge software; always up to date (hence, rolling-release)
• The very complete Arch User Repository; every package you want is highly likely to be either in the official repositories or in the AUR
• Godlike wiki

Disadvantages to Using Arch Linux

In addition to the advantages of using Arch Linux, there are also a number of costs, including:

• Offering bleeding-edge software can cause stability issues
• When Arch Linux breaks, it is often difficult or time-consuming to repair
• A minimalist installation process can often confuse new users
• Smaller community than other distributions, for example, Ubuntu
• Software in the AUR isn't always to be trusted to be safe or up to date

Installation

Arch installation is a fully command-line process. If you can't into command-line, you won't into Arch. See lesser distros such as Manjaro, Archbang or Antergos for an automated install.

The Arch Linux website supplies ISO files that the user may burn to a disk, or use on a USB flash drive to install. In the past, Arch has offered a graphical interface throughout the installation, however, no longer does. For beginners, it is recommended to use the Arch Install Scripts Arch Beginners Guide which helps to provide an easier a well documented and easy to follow installation process. For average or advanced-level users, a Wiki page is offered on the Arch Wiki that describes the install process from scratch.

Package Management

pacman is the package manager for Arch. This uses the repos specified in /etc/pacman.conf.

Yaourt is one of many pacman wrappers that manages packages from the Arch User Repository. Beware, this software is not maintained by the distro maintainers.

Forks

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is an FSF-endorsed Arch derivative whose repositories only contain free software.

Antergos is a preconfigured Arch Linux derivative, formerly known as CinnArch. Desktop environments available include: Cinnamon, Gnome, KDE, MATE, Openbox and XFCE.

ArchBang is a preconfigured Arch Linux derivative that runs the Openbox window manager.

Manjaro is an XFCE/KDE Arch based distro. It simplifies a lot of the usual installation of Arch Linux. The Manjaro devs screen software so it is slightly less bleeding edge than Arch.

Chakra Linux is a fully KDE distro. It was based on Arch, but pacman is the only thing left now, since they have their own repository, and build their own packages. Semi-rolling release.

ArchBSD is a minimal Freebsd Fork with Pacman as a package manager. Currently only supports i686 and x86-64 architectures.