I’ve been using Debian (and formerly Ubuntu) for many years.
But I’ve been wanting to tell people that I use Arch.
I’ve been considering the following distros:
- Arch
- Cachy
- Manjaro
- Any others?
I’m leaning towards Arch or Cachy. This is for a mediocre laptop that I’m planning to use as a media center: Kodi, Retroarch, Steam, etc. Should I even be using Arch for this? Maybe Debian is more stable…
Sorry if this has been asked before. Thanks for any tips!
Vanilla arch
In no case manjaro
The only Arch distros I know that are solid are Arch itself, Steam OS, and Cachy OS. The latter 2 have meaningful optimizations for their intended use which is really the only excuse for a new derivative IMO besides things like different release schedules.
Hi, in my opinion, the best distro is always the one that everything builds upon. So if you want maximal control, etc. Just use arch. Its also great if you want to learn how to troubleshoot.
Do you use Arch?
Not currently but I have in the past.
Best Arch distro?
Just install vanilla Arch. If you don’t want to install it manually,
archinstallworks fine. But you really should install it manually, following the Installation Guide on the Arch Wiki, at least once.Don’t use Manjaro.
Arch if you want to do the install completely by yourself and/or have some setup that can’t be replicated by the usual installers.
EndeavourOS/Cachy if you want a simple GUI installer for Arch, but you don’t get bragging rights.
Don’t use Manjaro
Just plain Arch, been using it for the past 5 years. Haven’t told anyone unless askes though.
Same here, just plain Arch (BTW). I also don’t mention it IRL unless someone asks, and they never have lol.
Used to be Manjaro, because it’s got sane opinions and I’m not looking to make maintaining that machine a new hobby. I don’t mind the curated “almost” rolling release, but they’re getting worse about simple things (like maintaining their own certs) and I’ve decided to move on.
Here, I fixed your post for you:
I’ve been wanting to tell people that I use Arch.
I’ve been considering the following distros:
- Arch
- Not Arch
- Not Arch
- Any others?
I’m leaning towards Arch or Not Arch.
EndeavourOS is my first choice, CachyOS is my second choice.
But I’ve been wanting to tell people that I use Arch.
Biblically accurate arch user
I switched from Windows to EndeavourOS, liked it and used it for a while. (now on Bazzite tho)
I use cachy os for the optimizations on modern hardware and access to newer packages. I use it on ny pc for gaming and laptop for development. I find it more convenient than arch. But I can’t say if it is better.
can someone who runs arch btw on weak hardware, like dual-core U-series i5 and such, tell me how they’re handling AUR and friends? every time I bring that up I get downvotes as if I’m some MICROS~1 agent paid to besmirch arch btw’s good name and whatnot…
the idea that I hafta build and compile shit on a puny dual-core in 2026 is fucking ludicrous to me, never mind the bloat and cruft from all the build tools and deps for every possible stack. so what obvious solution am I missing? like, how do you handle a full system upgrade, say you got like ten things from AUR in addition to regular packages, what does that look like?
Back in 2015, I was using Arch on a single core Intel Atom 1.5GHz processor with 1GiB of RAM
Most packages came from binary packages, and the AUR was the exception when I needed something specific outside of the main repos
One suggestion is to look for
-binversions of the packages you want. Those are precompiled and should install only marginally slower than a regular pacman package.first time I heard of this, thanks. so running it thusly it’s no different than a copr or apt repo?
Not quite as that its user-created and submitted.
But yeah lots of packages have a -bin counterpart that will install a lot quicker than compiling it for yourself.
You can use an AUR mirror repo to avoid compiling. Chaotic looks like the most popular one.
thanks, this looks good, gonna try it out with my next build
Stay away from Manjaro.
I’ve heard great things about Endeavor and Cachy, but personally use Garuda. Highly recommend it.
Woah I used Garuda years ago and loved it at the time. Surprised it’s still going strong!
Tried Manjaro for a few months before it broke. EndeavourOS has been treating me well for about a year now.
Same. Tried manjaro twice, fully broken after a few months every time. Thought Linux was just too much work and I wasn’t smart enough. Been on Garuda for over 3 years without issue.
I feel like manjaro keeps people from adopting Linux. I have friends that will argue about my Linux experience because they tried manjaro and think that’s how all Linux is.
EndeavorOS is my go to for arch based systems. But with the archinstall script I’d say just give vanilla a go
