Linux

48652 readers

1214 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Linux middle ground? (self.linux)

submitted 2 months ago by Bunny19 to c/[email protected]

144 comments fedilink hide all child comments

so a common claim I see made is that arch is up to date than Debian but harder to maintain and easier to break. Is there a good sort of middle ground distro between the reliability of Debian and the up-to-date packages of arch?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Probably not the place to ask, but. Say In a n00b and have Arch (EndeavourOS BTW) on a 15+ year old laptop. Everything works fine hardware wise. Software is fairly basic web, Inkscape, LibreOffice.

Do I really need all the latest Arch updates? Or can I just do an update say every 6 months?

[–] Nibodhika 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Replace Arch with Ubuntu and the answer is yes. Arch based that's not a good idea.

The reason is that in 6 months lots can have changed, and Arch is not guaranteed a stable base, so updates might assume you have certain versions or things might break because you should have done a middle step during the upgrades that you didn't which is now buried in months of update news in the wiki.

If you want to only update your system every six months, Arch is not ideal, it's likely to work, but not guaranteed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Thankfully, paru has an option to automatically show all Arch News before any -S operation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The issue with that is potentially keeping software which has security bugs on your system for longer than needed. Also, if you install new software you'll have a partial upgrade which can degrade your system. If you don't install anything though, your system should work as it currently does without issue. Unless a particular app takes something from the internet which may need the upgraded software (say, discord, spotify, etc. as they're electron based.)

If that's what you want to do I would suggest switching to xubuntu, mint xfce edition, DSL, etc. as they'll still patch security updates in. You do you though of course as with your stated usecase I can't see any functional issue. I don't see the reason for arch though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

This isn't what Arch is for. Get a stable system with reasonable updates. If you are really looking for stable go Debian but if you want newer packages with major updates every 6 months go Fedora.