Arch Linux

Arch Linux is es­pe­cially strong due to its great ver­sat­il­ity and how up to date it is. With Pacman, the system has a very fast and reliable package manager. Arch Linux forgoes graphical tools, which makes it es­pe­cially suitable for ex­per­i­enced de­velopers.

Arch Linux is a Linux server dis­tri­bu­tion which was optimised for AMD64 and has been delivered as a rolling release since 2002. Basis and highest maxim of the dis­tri­bu­tion is the KISS principle, which was es­tab­lished from the beginning by the project leader at that time Judd Vinet and the team. ‘KISS’ stands for ‘Keep it simple, stupid’ and describes the min­im­al­ist approach of the dis­tri­bu­tion. Arch Linux forgoes graphical in­stall­a­tion and con­fig­ur­a­tion aids, which means that the dis­tri­bu­tion is aimed at more ex­per­i­enced de­velopers. Arch Linux has been further developed by a team led by Levente Polyak together with ‘trusted users’ since 2020 and is published under the General Public License.

The mentioned min­im­al­ism is one of the special features of Arch Linux. The dis­tri­bu­tion waives many graphical tools, and also uses an un­mod­i­fied source code (well, as far as possible) for the included software. In addition, Arch Linux is based on Linux from Scratch. The dis­tri­bu­tion itself provides only a few tools, but offers many pos­sib­il­it­ies. Both free and com­mer­cial ap­plic­a­tions can be installed and used easily and without re­stric­tions.

This also means that Arch Linux is suitable for a wide range of different ap­plic­a­tion purposes. From a lean server structure to a fully equipped desktop, everything is possible. Another special feature is how up to date it is, which is guar­an­teed by the rolling release principle. Even extensive changes are im­ple­men­ted in the packages within a few weeks. The dedicated community provides numerous doc­u­ment­a­tions for a variety of different ap­plic­a­tion purposes.

Another special feature is Pacman, a package manager specially developed for Arch Linux. This can auto­mat­ic­ally download packages from the Arch re­pos­it­or­ies, install, update, and remove them if necessary. This also applies to the handling of local sources.

Before you start the Arch Linux in­stall­a­tion you should make sure that all the necessary re­quire­ments are met. Your computer should have at least 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of memory. For stream­lined use, 2 GB of RAM and 20 GB of storage are re­com­men­ded. The computer should also be x86-64 com­pat­ible. A working Internet con­nec­tion and a USB drive with a storage capacity of at least 2 GB are also important.

Arch Linux is a unique Linux dis­tri­bu­tion compared to others and offers various ad­vant­ages as well as some dis­ad­vant­ages. Many points depend on your own re­quire­ments and intended use.

• Rolling Release: Due to the rolling release principle, Arch Linux is always up to date and does not need to be re­in­stalled.
• KISS: The KISS principle and the resulting sim­pli­city offer great freedom and a lean starting position. You can do away with su­per­flu­ous packages and build a system that com­pletely meets your unique re­quire­ments.
• Pacman: The package manager Pacman is also an advantage of Arch Linux and is now also used for other dis­tri­bu­tions. It is not only very reliable, but also com­par­at­ively fast.
• ABS: ABS (Arch Build System) is the package man­age­ment of Arch Linux and can also be cus­tom­ised.
• AUR: The Arch User Res­pos­it­ory is run by the community and provides a variety of different software. While this is generally an advantage, a close look at the re­spect­ive package is always important.
• Doc­u­ment­a­tion: Arch Linux’s doc­u­ment­a­tion is extensive, fa­cil­it­at­ing your handling and daily work with the dis­tri­bu­tion. Due to the dedicated community, many problems are quickly iden­ti­fied, fixed, and doc­u­mented.

• Dif­fi­culty level: Arch Linux forgoes graphical tools and is therefore not easy to master, es­pe­cially for beginners. The dis­tri­bu­tion is aimed more at ex­per­i­enced de­velopers.
• In­stall­a­tion: The same applies to the in­stall­a­tion. This is command line-based and therefore requires some prior knowledge. Ap­plic­a­tions, en­vir­on­ments, and utilities must also be installed manually.
• Possible In­stabil­ity: Due to the rolling release principle, problems can occur again and again, since not every package is always tested down to the last detail. Overall, Arch Linux is a very stable system, but problems can still occur with the latest version, at least for a short time.

Arch Linux is primarily aimed at ex­per­i­enced users or those who want to improve their knowledge of Linux. Also those who always need or want to use the latest software will probably be happy with Arch Linux. Through the rolling releases you are always up to date. Users who want to set up a system com­pletely according to their ideas will also find Arch Linux a very good option. However, the dis­tri­bu­tion is less suitable for beginners.

Beside the two probably most well-known dis­tri­bu­tions Ubuntu and Debian there are numerous smaller al­tern­at­ives to Arch Linux. The two CentOS suc­cessors AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux. as well as for the PC Linux Mint and Manjaro Linux should be em­phas­ised here. If pen­et­ra­tion testing and IT forensics are required, Kali Linux is re­com­men­ded. For work with the cloud, for example, the high-per­form­ance dis­tri­bu­tion Clear Linux is suitable.