Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation

Re:Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation by JonChesterfield on Thursday November 24, 2022 @09:25AM (#33731580)

I've been installing Ubuntu this week. Checking download updates during install gave me a broken libc dependency graph which blocked installing ssh or gcc. Libpci-dev conflicts with gnome as far as I can tell, installing that took down X and the network. Changing to the server iso of the same version gave me an OS that can't use the builtin intel NIC, though the desktop version can. The driver errors on modprobe, -2.

I'm going to try again with a different Ubuntu release as soon as I can find the patience. Where prior lessons have taught me to vandalise automatic update or it'll brick itself in the future.

Ease of use has not been the defining characteristic of Ubuntu.

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Re:Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation by ilyt on Thursday November 24, 2022 @09:43AM (#33731789)

I'm now firmly confirmed that it is Ubuntu that fucks something up. Upgrades seem to work much better with plain Debian.

We've seen many failures during upgrade, from both novice and advanced linux users, meanwhile one of our sysadmins accidentally upgraded Debian by two releases at once (From Debian 9 to 11) and it still "just worked"...

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Re:Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation by doubled112 on Thursday November 24, 2022 @10:01AM (#33732027)

I had pretty constant issues with Ubuntu every time I've tried it as well.

I run pure Debian stable everywhere I can in my personal life (laptops, desktops, servers). It's predictable and there's not a lot of planning at update OR upgrade time. Backup, push the button, reboot, done.

Just kidding, backups happen daily automatically, so it's just update and reboot.

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Re:Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation by JonChesterfield on Thursday November 24, 2022 @10:11AM (#33732146)

Debian occasionally falls over on me when running unstable but that's kind of the point. Testing hasn't failed on me in at least a decade.

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Re:Arch Linux turns 20: Small, simple, great documentation by luxcem on Thursday November 24, 2022 @09:59AM (#33732004)

Same experience from my days in Ubuntu world, it sure is relatively easy for a first time linux user but I had so many issues on it that were completely obscure. I had the feeling of fighting against the system itself all the time.

With arch, sometimes it breaks (not that often), it always is quite clear what went wrong (pacman errors are limpid, logs are clear). You'll find the fix on the Arch Linux News, in the wiki or the forums. Bonus you probably know your system better and as a side effect be more efficient in fixing it.

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