I was tempted by Arch Linux more than once. It's build with simplicity in mind, it has a good deal of packages in the repositories (500+ in "current", ~2,000 in "extra", and ~1,000 in "community"), it has a superb logo (hey! this is important to some people!), and it's Canadian (this can be at times an advantage over being American).

I was however turned down by a few «don't likes»:

• The website has a nice layout, however the documentation is rather NULL. Browsing their wiki is no pleasure for me.
• The newbie may get confused about what CD or CDs to download: arch-0.7.2-base.iso, or arch-0.7.2.iso? Only one of them or both? (It's "one of them", usually the "full" one, not the base.)
• Pacman, the official Arch Linux package manager, has options/flags impossible to memorize in my case, and issuing the wrong command can be harmful at times: see "-Sy" versus "-Su", "-R" versus "-Rs". Why needing to learn a new package manager every time?!

Releases five months ago, Arch 0.7.2 is however interesting even to me, for it has X.Org 7.0 and GNOME 2.14 as "stable" (however GNOME is not on the CD).


I was reminded of Arch by ricochet, through the means of Underground Linux [old site], who got very active lately — 027 was released on Oct. 5, and 029 on Oct. 12!

I'm sensitive to logos I like (and UHU Linux is a proof of that), so I tried to understand what's Underground Linux good at.

First of all, it's Arch-based, but it only features KDE. However, just like Ubuntu was to Debian, Underground Desktop offers something Arch didn't have: an installable LiveCD, now updated with the latest packages, so you can easily see if it suits your needs before even attempting to install it!

If you find the simile «Underground is to Arch what Ubuntu is to Debian», a little overstated, you might be right. However, for the not-so-geek user, Underground might be a way to ease the possible adoption of Arch... or to replace it, as there is one more interesting news: Underground uses Arch's repositories for getting extra packages!

You can install Underground Linux, then add more packages from Arch. You might say you're using Arch Linux, but the easy start was enabled by Underground Linux! (You can't do that with Ubuntu and Debian, duh...)

— § —
This was by no means a review of any of the two distros whatsoever, but merely a quick assessment of the offer. The two distros could try to get into a form of a community collaboration, with mutual advantages, the most important being the growth of their user base. We might see them having a good evolution in 2007.

P.S.: As a quick starter for newbies, Underground Desktop has a few post-install hints and recommendations. The most important are about connectivity:

• To configure an adsl connection, run: pppoe-setup
• To configure a dialup (ppp) connection, run: kppp
• To configure ethernet cards (lan connection), run: [K menu] -> [System] -> [networksetup]

As for the "classical missing packages"...
UPDATE: Underground is currently a dead project. R.I.P.

[permalink]

No comments.
0 comment(s) awaiting for approval.