Who will be crowned as the Panic! at the Distro Champion? Obtaining the title of the most superior Linux flavor, either Arch or Fedora will take home the most sought after award in Linux history. Vote over the next three days to become a part of history.

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I just watched a less tech savvy Windows user in r/computers being told by an Arch elitist that in order to reduce their RAM usage they need Arch. They also claimed that Arch is the best distro for beginners because it forces you to learn a lot of things.

What do you think this will accomplish?

Someone who doesn't know that much about Linux or computers in general will try this, find it extremely difficult, become frustrated about why everything is so complicated, and then quit.

That is the worst possible outcome for the Linux community. By behaving this way, you are actively damaging our reputation as a community by teaching people that the extreme end of difficulty is the norm or even easy for Linux distributions.

This needs to stop. Ubuntu, PeppermintOS, Linux Mint and etc exist for a reason.

Edit: I wasn't very clear. I'm not saying Arch cannot be a good distro for someone who hasn't tried Linux before, I'm saying that someone who isn't interested in learning about Linux or computers in general shouldn't be recommended something that requires a significant amount of learning and patience just to be a functional tool for what they need it for.

Will Arch continue to dominate each opponent in its path to the final, or will Debian apt-get in Arch's way? Who will advance to the championship of distros?

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Are you ready for the Elite Eight?

Ubuntu is set to face off against Arch Linux in this true thriller; who will win? You decide!

The current round of Panic! at the Distro is composed of the following matchups:

Gentoo Vs. Debian is posted here:

Next Round

Stay posted on my profile over the next week as I will be posting the polls to decide who advances each day!

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I recently switched to Linux as my daily driver just last month (I had been using Linux in my home server before then). I decided to go with Kubuntu for my OS, but some of the decisions made surrounding Ubuntu and its flavors (such as forcing you to use the snap version of Chromium) irk me somewhat.

This weekend I installed Arch Linux in a virtual machine, and it was quite enjoyable. I have been pondering whether to switch to Arch, but I am just wondering, are there are any real benefits in switching to Arch besides getting to build it yourself?

Edit: I made the switch to Arch!

I get arch isnt owned by a corporation. Unlike Debian, ubuntu, mint, manjaro etc.

Does this mean arch is considered community driven and community lead? And is it considered the biggest community driven distro?

It seems to be beat by deb, and ubuntu which arent community driven.

Everything I mention in this post will be taken from the Arch Wiki this guide is geared towards new Arch Linux users who want a practical laptop like they did on Windows or Mac OS. This guide can be applied to other distros not just Arch.

Everything I'll show is biased towards my personal laptop with an Intel CPU and GPU, I'll be leaving guides for AMD and NVIDIA devices where it's needed so people with that hardware aren't left out.

For laptops with dual GPU's if you want the most battery life and best thermals you'll want to switch to your iGPU for normal tasks, I left Arch Wiki guides for how to do that at the bottom of this post.

I wont be using any power saving packages in this guide, because I don't like them and feel I can achieve better results without them even though they do a lot of similar things you'll see here. (If you do have any power saving packages installed uninstall all of them if you plan on following this guide as they may cause conflicts)

I'll continue updating this guide if I find anything new or if new technologies come out to improve efficiency.

Also small rant at the bottom of my post and basically my hope for Linux laptop support in the future.

Step 1. Kernel and Drivers

When picking what kernel to use (Latest or LTS) Latest will mostly likely have better performance and battery especially on newer hardware, LTS will have better stability and reliability. (personally I use the LTS)

run sudo pacman -S linux-firmware if you haven't installed it already it.

Here is the Arch Wiki page to the Linux kernel.

Here is the Arch Wiki Guide for NVIDIA drivers.

Here is the Arch Wiki Guide for AMD drivers.

Here is the Arch Wiki Guide for Intel drivers.

Step 2. Enable Wayland

Wayland has been shown have slight power saving compared to X.org it also makes my laptop run much smoother. For KDE you'll want to run sudo pacman -S plasma-wayland-session (For NVIDIA it's different check the wiki) then select it from your login screen, on Gnome it should be enabled by default. For other desktop environments I'll leave the Arch Wiki page.

Wayland is not a requirement for this guide I personally just found it much better to use.

For KDE

I regret to inform everyone that on January 7th at 5:37 A.M, Kali Linux was indicted on seven charges of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Due to this, Kali will be unable to participate in this year’s Panic! At the Distro. Fortunately, I contacted a colleague who had a connection with Void, and they graciously agreed to take Kali’s place. Arch (btw) will have to fight the obstinate fan base of Void in order to advance in this battle of the distros!

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I first decided to switch to Arch Linux after seeing it in privacy advocate websites. At first it was hard to build it from zero but after countless tries and eventually dropping forum guides in sake of wiki I finally built my computer. Could I go for 3rd party distro or installer? Yes, I could but then it wouldn't be secure and private so I did it the Arch Way. Thank you all for this great distribution and its community.

Btw, I use Arch. 😎

Please help feed my curiosity :)

Also, just to be clear, I'm asking about professional life (a.k.a occupation), so if you're doing something as a hobby it doesn't count.

There's a limit of 5 options so if yours isn't on the list, feel free to write it as a comment.

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(she is correct)

So, I saw the poll on r/linuxmasterrace here and I decided I'd give Fedora a look see in a VM today.

I haven't looked at it since it first came out. I put it in a VM today and I gotta say, I am blown away by how much it's caught up over the years. I kind of like the dnf package installer. I thought I had installed something earlier and apparently I didn't because it actually told me the program was not found and would I like to install it... WHAT!!!!!! That's insanely cool AF!!! I hate to say it but I have never said anything like this about Arch... I wish Arch could do that! Sure, with some scripting I'm sure it could be done but That's just cool as hell!

Now, I just put i3 on here and it's handling it perfectly fine. i3 is what I run in Virtual Machines because it's only setup with a single monitor in mind so I don't mind that there are only 10 virtual desktops.

As far as Gnome 4 is concerned... I was never a big fan of Gnome 3. I'm not really liking Gnome 4 much either but for a seasoned Linux user, installing another DE or a WM like I've done in this VM just enhances the experience. But in the long run, all we're using Fedora for, if we do choose a different DE or WM, is the package handler.

I do like the wallpaper selection though. I'm a photographer and any cool photographs that really catch my eye are really cool to have as wallpapers. The colored wax pencils is what I'm using right now. That's a really nice shot there. There are other pictures that I would also be happy with using as a wallpaper. They have a great selection.

So, as far as the total Fedora Workstation package is concerned, I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. If they offered more DE options I think that would raise it up a bit. But if I absolutely HAD to run Fedora, I could see putting Awesome WM on it and going with that. Wouldn't be hard to do from what I can tell.

My overall impression of the package handler is excellent. I think I could give that a 10 out of 10. Very simple to use! And because the interaction with the command and the package manager itself asking if you'd like to install the package if it doesn't find it on the system, very cool indeed!

Really, the only thing holding me back would be Gnome. Blech! Never liked Gnome as I said. Gnome 2 was great though. I had no complaints with it. In fact I think some great DEs were born from Gnome 2.

Anyway, that's my take

Elite Eight: Who Will Advance?

The winner of this fight advances to face off against Arch Linux in the Final Four. Will Gentoo compile a flock of followers in time or will Debian prevail? You decide!

Stay posted on my profile as Fedora challenges Manjaro tomorrow, and Tails goes head-to-head with Elementary OS on Wednesday. If all goes as planned, the Final Four will begin on Friday and the Ultimate Distro will be chosen on Monday!

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I always see people in the Linux community saying they use Arch btw but I couldn't find the the btw version in their website, just regular one. Is it a members-only kind of thing? I'd love to give it a try.

Thanks in advance.

https://github.com/kskeigrshi/to-arch.sh

It was originally a Majaro to Arch converter, but I thought EndeavourOS was a popular distro too so I decided to add the feature to convert EndeavourOS. How about giving it a try if you wanted to install Arch?

Had an unrelated issue with my Bluetooth earphones on all devices so I called customer service. They fixed the issue (reinstalled existing firmware) and asked me if it worked on all my devices. I said "yeah looks great, only thing it doesn't work on is my computer but that's fine".

The rep asks "Mac, PC, or Chromebook?"

I answer "actually it's Linux so I'm sure it's on my end"

And without hesitation or time to Google the rep says "ah wish I could help but we don't support that. But I heard Bluez and Bluez-utils were busted. Try rolling back to five-five or something when you get a chance."

Call ended shortly after. Downgrading did not work but I did find that current Bluez issues on arch forums almost always come with a recommendation to downgrade to version "5.55" to mixed results.

TL;DR

There are dozens of us! Was cool to meet one in a wild encounter this way.

Edit:

Support "*Rep" not "eep". Wish Reddit would let you alter titles.

I have been DD linux for almost a year. OF course there's the "lure" of arch.

I feel like I have gotten to "the bottom rung" of the Arch learning curve, manjaro, arch-install,arch-gui(they had a lot of bugs to me), arch tutorials on you-tube.. . . finally built MY Arch with the things I know and like. But I feel my knowledge is very limited. I'm fairly happy but there's still bugs.

I am now at the point where I am asking the type of questions and where it's more a choice/option (opinion based?) and would like to separate facts from emotions.

Here's a few Questions/topics I'm curious about:

Why grub or systemd bootloader?? is it just a choice or are there reasons for one or the other?

Network manager vs systemd-networkd? how do they act, separately or interact?

what are bigger differences between arch based and debian/ubuntu based distros and how does it affect my user experience? Is one actually better or is it "make a choice and master it"??

I know the ArchWiki is a great resource but a fair bit of the time it is in "college" terms and I'm not there yet. But I'm trying and learning.

I've watched a bunch of learn this and that youtube channels like, linux for everyone and learn linux tv (i need to get back to jay's tutorials they are great) but feel like i'm not "getting it" in some areas.

What is the difference between smd.service and smbd.service and samba? Is it systemd stuff??

I don't know where/how I might be making some of the bugs and want to learn. I know my questions are general and all over I'm not looking for an "answer" but more a direction that might get me to understanding the wiki better. Thanks for any tips

One of my friends is learning Linux, and he wants to get right into the command line, so I'm considering walking him through installing Arch. I know he'll enjoy the install process, but as a casual Linux user, does anyone think the 'maintenance' would be too much? If so, please suggest another Arch-based distro (other than Manjaro).

Hi folks, I've recently built a basic command line that can download a program and all its dependence into an AppDir and uses appimagetool to export the final AppImage to the desktop.

This is not much, but it is a first attempt to create AppImages starting from Arch Lnux packages (being them normally built from old libraries of Debian and derivatives).

Are you interested to any improvement or would you like to create any fork? The source code is here:

https://github.com/ivan-hc/Arch-Deployer I hope you like it.

Hello Community,

in the last weeks i have work on a Arch Linux installations Script ( not an useable terminal script ) to install Arch Linux on my System.

Now the script is done and the System runs pretty well and i want to share it for advice of changes i can made and on the other side as inspiration for other ppls to make ther own script. If you have tips or help for me, you are realy welcome.

https://pastebin.com/D11A4E8F

I got my Surface Pro 3 WiFi broken after the recent pacman -Syu. I blamed the recently applied TLP for suspending WiFI as a powersave measure, yet uninstalling it gave nothing. Further investigation on dmesg showed mwifiex_pcie kernel module probe fail due to the /usr/lib/firmware/mrvl/pcie8897_uapsta.bin file missing. I ran pacman -F -x pcie8897* on another machine to find out the file to be moved from the linux-firmware package to the linux-firmware-marvell package. This led me to the rarely happening Arch news on the main page, but I couldn't install the new package as my network was not working. Who would ever thought ditching network device firmware to be a good idea? Dumb me had cached packages removed with pacman -Sc, but I was lucky to discover the file on one of the previously made Btrfs snapshots (kudos to Btrfs guys, it rocks!). I simply restored the file to its system location, rebooted - and voila, I have eventually installed the linux-firmware-marvell package, the problem's now gone.

I will read Arch news before pacman -Syu...

I will read Arch news before pacman -Syu...

I will read Arch news before pacman -Syu...

"Hello I am Build Gates from Tech Support and your komputer has been infected with vairus."

This was the sentence that split my life into two, before Arch Linux and after Arch Linux.

"To uninfect the komputer we need your kred it kard number, the tree digit on back and expiration so we can buy best antivairus for you sir." For the sake of protecting my precious cat videos from the virus, I gave them everything they needed, so that I can at last watch my cat videos with a peace of mind and without Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up playing every single time.

"Thank queue kind sir, we will uninfect the komputer immediately." They hung up instantely.

A few minutes later, I received an SMS. "They have successfully uninfected my computer," I thought. "I wonder how much did they spend on the antivirus." What was unravelled to me next changed the fate of my life forever. The SMS read: "$133769 have been spent with your credit card on IndiaMART. Please call CreditCardWithoutLimitsCuzWhyNotEcksdee Bank for any inquiries or if you did not perform this action." I froze in horror as my limbs slowly become numb. I fainted. When I have regained my consciousness, I called the bank but it was too late. I was forced to pay up with my hard-earned life savings the amount they spent on counterfeit handphones, computer accessories and cat food.

I've been tricked, backstabbed and quite possibly, bamboozled. I felt cheated and betrayed. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined. There was no more meaning to my life. I have decided that I want to die. I will leave my final message on Facebook. As I booted up Windows on my laptop, I realized that my desktop picture - a picture of a cat - wasn't showing up. Instead, the screen was green. Suddenly, a long-bearded elderly man appeared on the screen. "Do not be afraid, I am here to help you," he said, in a loud and clear voice. "S..Santa Claus? Is that you?" I asked. "How can you help me? Can you add those scammers to the naughty list, please?" The man replied, "I am NOT SANTA CLAUS, but I can and will help you in a different way." "How? How?" I replied excitedly. "Use Arch Linux," the man answered. "Arch Linux?" "Yes, Arch Linux." "What's that? A type of food? Or a type of detergent?" "No, an operating system, just like Windows, but much superior." After considering for a while, I replied, "Okay, I will." "Good luck! Bye!" The man disappeared in a blink of an eye.

I woke up. Immediately I grabbed my USB drive,

I am using ubuntu desktop for almost an year now and recently got a new laptop. I wanted to try something new and learn more about Linux using my old laptop (Intel i3 4GB). I was brought here through some random links. I am convinced to try Arch. Can anyone help me with some learning map or something to get the best from it, please?

I can find the grub folder anywhere my efi folder is on (hd0,gpt1) http://imgur.com/a/OK67X8u Edit:Thanks everyone for their help and their kindness!

Having spent most of my weekend installing and troubleshooting a fresh install of Arch Linux, I can now fully appreciate the sentiment of Linus Sebastian's reactions to Linux.

Some background;

I like to consider myself a seasoned Linux user, I installed my first copy of Red Hat Linux at the age of 15 and never stopped ever since. Heck, I even daily drove a ps3 with yellow dog Linux due to being too broke to buy a PC in my early twenties. I work with (Ubuntu) Linux everyday at work and hold several certificates that require a fair bit of technical understanding.

Having distrohopped for the better part of a decade, I finally decided to return to "my roots" a couple of years ago, installed Fedora and kind of stayed put since everything seemed to just work.

Watching LTT's Linux challenge, I got curious about Arch and decided to give it a go. I felt that had Linus simply gone for the Gnome desktop environment, he wouldn't have had most of the issues he's been experiencing so far. But...

Even with my experience, I managed to kill ( and restore ) the desktop environment, found the repositories and accompanying documentation confusing and couldn't get The Ascent to run, while other games ran choppy at best.

So after seeing my Saturday go to waste, I decided to do a fresh install of fedora 35 ( was running 34 'til Friday ) and call it a day.

And man, was that install a breeze... one hour in and I had The Ascent running, most of my applications installed and running, ran overclocking tools, restored my VM's and configured the RGB lighting on my peripherals without so much as a hiccup from the system.

Whereas in Arch I was still troubleshooting mesa & mesa-git after half a day, in Fedora I was actually using my PC in less than 2 hours....

This, in my opinion, is indeed unacceptable from a "novice" user's perspective. Error messages should lead to solutions instead of more questions and more importantly, the GUI should work with you every step of the way.

I still hold the belief that Linux distro's are superior to Windows in many ways, but in this aspect, there's still a long way to go for many of them.

A special mention to Fedora though... despite some minor bugs, they managed to make a functional and stable distro that is easy to use for novices and appealing enough for power users & now gamers too. Not only do things just work, it's "bleeding edge" and rock solid.

I installed arch Linux for the very first time and got recommended to install a good Firewall. what is the best Firewall out there? and do you also have any other programs/packages for Security/Privacy ?

Arch Linux + Cinnamon OR Linux Mint Cinnamon?

It is a BAD idea!

Known Issues

• System kernel panics on shutdown/unmount sometimes
• There is no working fsck tool
• The system will break itself after a few boots

Pre-requirements

• ArchISO or any system with kernel 5.15

How-To?

1. Boot up your ArchISO
2. Configure your network if you need to
3. Install ntfs-3g (only on the iso, no need to have it on the final system) to have access to mkfs.ntfs
4. Follow the Arch install guide normally with some exceptions:
   1. Format your root partition with mkfs.ntfs
   2. Mount your root partition with mount -t ntfs3 /dev/sdXY /mnt
   3. Remove fsck from your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf as there is no working fsck tool for ntfs3
   4. Add rootfstype=ntfs3 as kernel parameter (otherwise it fails to mount to rootfs)
5. Reboot

But why?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here is a pic of it in a VM