Just to chime in, I first tried arch because some youtuber I followed recommended it, but after 5 years I would say I've stayed with it for the AUR and the community. The AUR has almost every app I've ever needed, and whenever I have a problem there's always a solution on one forum or another, to the point where I can usually just copy and paste it into the terminal and it's solved!
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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AUR is kind of the worst feature Arch offers and I am not actively using Arch right now anyway. Because its used for the wrong purpose: "install any app you need/want". Thats dangerous and creates problems by itself. I'd rather rely on flatpak/appimages, but open for counter arguments.
What problems does the AUR create? I just install using yay, and it mostly works fine
Users not being aware of what kind of package they install on their system and how AUR packages can conflict with normal repo packages. Additionally its a big security risk if you cannot/don't read the code.
AUR is basically like installing software from some kind of online source which is not supervised by anyone.
So much this! As a user of both Arch and Gentoo I say, don't use Arch as Gentoo! It's not Gentoo! AUR is not a standard repository and there's a reason they make you jump through hoops just to use the thing.
Also, it's a total pain when normal package management is quick and easy. The building alone is weird in Arch and somehow like 60% of the crap I try to build from AUR fails hard and I just can't be bothered to spend more than like twenty minutes tweaking on it. Gr. 😅
(Aaalllsooo, apparently lots of people break their Arch installs using the AUR like it's a normal repo and then wonder why Arch is so crap and leave.)
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Customization, lots of apps (via aur), no bloat
I use Crystal Linux, which is Arch based.
I've tried Mint along with 10 other distros. What I liked about Arch is:
- Latest Kernel, always. This means new drivers, better support for your current devices and support for more devices. Security & performance patches.
- AUR. Massive repo of user submitted apps & libs most not found elsewhere.
- Arch WiKi. Everything you will need or want to do somebody else already did and documented it so everyone else can have a guide to do it. Best documentation site ever.
- Arch Repo. Always the latest Software. Officially maintained apps and libs land first on Arch, Debian & Ubuntu derivatives take ages to catch up in comparison.
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*btw
The AUR
Different strokes for different folks mostly.
Arch is a rolling release, meaning everytime something changes in a package or dependency, there's an update.
Mint is a stable release, and gets major updates every few months, with much more frequent security updates, but yeah, it's not an everyday thing like with Arch
While I don't like saying "this is better than that", since Arch is a rolling release, it's always up to date, and so you're not going to end up in a situation like "my built-in laptop sound card isn't getting picked up" (i mean, you might, but it's rare. After all, Arch can break sometimes times, just like everything, really) like you sometimes can with Mint and other stable distros. Also, Arch--well, vanilla Arch and something like Endeavour--comes with just the basics and everything else, you gotta add. I personally like this because I like knowing exactly what I'm installing and having only what I'm going to use...and also not deal with messing with PPA's. This isn't a point against non-Arch distros or anything, it's all just personal preference--but really, everything from "Should I do Arch with Cinnamon or something like Mint or Fedora's Cinnamon Spin?" is all up to personal preference
I think my issue with Mint is the small team maintaining the cinnamon fork that clearly can't keep up with the desktop.
Otherwise mint is functionally Ubuntu. I preferred Debian for my stable stuff. I like arch currently because PKGBUILD was acomparatively easy package format to learn and modify. Rolling is nice but I've used Debian extensively as well.
If you like extra config work you'll love Arch relative to Mint.
It's also a meme because people who are on Arch like to tell you about it because it makes them seem better since it's not easy mode.
Kinda like vegans or Android users.
I'm on Manjaro an arch based distro BTW.
This is a thing of the past, everybody can have a running arch distro without any Linux knowledge nowadays. Archinstall, EndeavourOS etc.
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