I like managing my AUR packages with pacman for some reason. I actually find it to be less trouble than dealing with yaourt.

I've looked into this for a brief moment but realized that I want to spend as little time in the GUI being unproductive as possible. I'd almost say that shitty X fonts are a feature for me right now -- the one time it was an actual problem motivated me to set up CUPS and get my laser printer working (btw, HP, f* you for your handling of Zjstream printers).

Good tip though. And yes, the patent issue doesn't help.