I realized my VLC was broke some point in the week after updating Arch. I spend time troubleshooting then find a forum post with replies from an Arch moderator saying they knew it would happen and it’s my fault for not wanting to read through pages of changelogs. Another mod post says they won’t announce that on the RSS feed either. I thought I was doing good by following the RSS but I guess that’s not enough.
I’ve been happily using Arch for 5 years but after reading those posts I’ve decided to look for a different distro. Does anyone have recommendations for the closest I can get to Arch but with a different attitude around updating?
arch is for people who want to play linux. if you actually want to use linux, go with something else
I use the same arch install for 10 years on my home server, and its really solid.
Same, my desktop PC had Arch installed in 2012 lol
it is
…if you’re willing to put in the effort to play linux
What does this even mean? I had more problems with Fedora on my Notebook in the last few months (wouldn’t randomly boot anymore?!) than I had with Arch Linux in 10 years.
i believe you. also, my great uncle has smoked since he was 13 and he’s now 86 and is still alive
seriously, though, if you do everything right, arch is a great system. it is really well put together and very stable all things considered. the problem is the “doing everything right” part. what happened to op is pretty common if you stop reviewing your updates one by one for a week or two. if you’re used to that, then arch is perfect. otherwise, it’s a chore
This is just not true. Its pretty rare that you have to manually intervene when updating.
that’s a little besides the point. my point is that you have to always be ready, even if an actual intervention event takes a while to happen. you’re used to it and/or got lucky, but the op is not the first person i see having issues like this and getting blamed for them because they should know better
funny and glib, but not true
arch only works if you think maintaining every detail of a linux system is fun, because you have to constantly know what you’re doing and that’s a huge commitment. stuff like what the op described is bound to happen if you ever get bored of it and decide not to pay much attention to the system one particular week
What’s your point of comparison, Ubuntu LTS? Arch does not require nearly as much upkeep or attention as you’re claiming. Try setting up a Gentoo or NixOS system, or better yet just do Linux From Scratch, and come back to us.
I have been on Arch , and I’m now running NixOS as my daily driver… IMO NixOS is less of a hassle to set up, and nearly maintenance free compared to Arch… Twice a year when the channel updates there’s a bit of stuff, but every change I need to make is usually explained in the output of my
nixos-rebuild… If something suddenly breaks in an update, I just boot into my previous generation, roll back myflake.lockand wait a few days for a fix to be available…Having dailied both as well, I only agree once you’re over the very significant learning curve. And even then, I’d say initial setup is pretty similar, if not a bit easier on Arch.
Arch and NixOS are kind of like C and Rust. Arch/C give you the power and flexibility to do pretty much whatever you want, but also will let you do it in very stupid ways that will come back to bite you. NixOS and Rust give you the same amount of power, but with a higher barrier to entry that ensures you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing, which results in a much more stable experience.
debian
fedora
opensuse tumbleweed (which happens to also be rolling release)
gentoo and lfs make it very clear they’re demanding distros. arch is just a little easier, but it’s closer to gentoo than to debian
I have dailied Arch and Debian unstable and they both took about as much effort. Arch is really not that complex, it just gives you access to some potential footguns. Also, Arch absolutely makes it clear that it’s a more advanced distro – that’s the entire reason for the meme, although these days it’s a lot simpler thanks mostly to the installers.
i really don’t think that’s true about arch, but in general i get that there is a spectrum of how much ppl want to be active in the maintenance of their computer.
i use EndeavourOS, but for my wife i give her Kalpa, which is atomic and much more “less fuss, just use computer.”
maybe @makeitwonderful@lemmy.sdf.org would like an immutable distro.
That’s insane wtf 😂
I enjoyed getting to pick out a lot of the small details by choosing what was going on my system. Something about having the minimum amount needed to meet my needs eases a variety of my computing related anxieties.
I’ve always managed to solve issues I’ve encountered but reading that forum post made me realize I may have been attributing issues from updates to Linux in general instead of my distro choice.
yeah, it is pretty fun, i used arch for a long time years ago and i liked it. but it’s a huge commitment and you can’t ever forget the system exists (which sometimes you need to do if you have a life)