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Comparison of Arch Linux & Slackware

Posted by timothy on from the special-events dept.

PostThis writes "The so-called 'lean and mean' distros in the Linux land, Arch Linux and Slackware are being compared in this article. Their installation, configuration, usage, package management, stability, speed, support and future vision are among the qualities discussed."

2 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Distros have no business in /opt! by atomic-penguin · · Score: 3, Informative

    opt is my area where I can install my big self-contained stuff and not worry about it getting changed or overwritten at the next upgrade or apt-get. If Arch puts half of /usr in /opt, where is non-distro related software supposed to go? ~/stuff?

    Could put your stuff in /usr/local.

    There is a filesystem hierarchy standard

    As defined by the fhs:
    "/opt : Add-on application software packages"
    "/usr/local : Local hierarchy"

    --
    /^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
  2. I love Arch by DJayC · · Score: 2, Informative

    Arch has been amazing. I've run many different distros, but none have compared to Arch. First off, the speed is incredible. I thought my Gentoo system flew, but Arch felt a lot faster (don't forget: Arch is a binary dist.). The packages available are up to date, and very easy to install with pacman. Pacman is also resolves dependencies quickly, which I definitely like (compared to, say, 'yum').

    Within the first night I had Arch up and running I was already building my own packages using ABS. There is also a "trusted user repository" website where you can find packages that might not be in the official respository, though I usually just build the package myself.

    My favorite thing is the fact that you can download the "core" arch CD distro which is actually under 100megs. You install the core, and simply use pacman to install the stuff you want. I finally feel like my linux system has only the software I want/need, instead of tons of applications/utilities/libraries I will never use.

    If you haven't used Arch yet, give it a shot!