Pacman -Ss searches for available packages.doublejoon wrote: oh yeah what would be the equivalent pacman command for say apt-cache search "package"?
Arch
Moderators: snarkout, Patrick, dann
Well, I'm going to have to go with "Arch is not for even semi-n00bs" at this point. I was helping my little brother install arch, and it got to the point where we needed to generate an xorg.conf file, and hwd wasn't loaded on the system, and he had no network access because he didn't know how to setup rc.conf to use dhcp, which it doesn't do by default, and he doesn't know how to use vi. I was right there, and did these things for him, but it certainly made it obvious that arch really *isn't* aimed at less-experienced users. He's used linux some - actually installed it years before I ever did - but has never used it as a main OS. This more or less means "NO ARCH FOR YOU!" We could do UGL, but truthfully, it might be better for him to step into linux via an easier avenue.
At this point, we're goofing around with Kubuntu and debianpure. He may try fedora out, too. We're having sort of a mini-install-fest geek-out weekend.
At this point, we're goofing around with Kubuntu and debianpure. He may try fedora out, too. We're having sort of a mini-install-fest geek-out weekend.
Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased; thus do we refute entropy.
--Spider Robinson
--Spider Robinson
Arch isn't for everyone. Although, with a little effort, I'm sure most people could learn if they took the time. However, if you're not interested in learning such things, the climb is a lot steeper and more frustrating.
Something like Underground Desktop is certainly the easier way to get an Arch system up and running. But, again, it isn't for everyone.
Something like Underground Desktop is certainly the easier way to get an Arch system up and running. But, again, it isn't for everyone.
I have had Arch installed for the last few days and I am liking it so far. Getting things setup was a little difficult but I had my system up and running in only a few hours. Gettings things configured was a bit difficult at first just because I was so used to the way Gentoo works. One of the hardest parts of setting up my system was getting a newer version of the ivtv driver working because the version currently in the Arch repositories didn't work because it was built for the old 2.6.13 kernel. The overall environment is very fast, especially noticeable with KDE and Java apps, and I like Pacman. I haven't posted on the Arch forums yet but I have tried to contribute a little bit by voting for apps that I use from AUR. Thanks for recommending such a great distro.
As for what I said about Gentoo, it was a great distro for the most part during the year and a half that I used it but too much crap happened the last month that I used it. The thing that really made me get upset was when I tried KDE 3.5. It took over 12 hours to compile and then it broke some KDE apps, including my KDE 3.4 install. I used revdep-rebuild to find what caused the breakage and it found nothing wrong. I tried recompiling some of the apps that were broken, like K3B, and that didn't help. Also, a superficial problem, the version of Konqueror included in KDE 3.5 didn't pass the Acid2 test. I figured what was the point of taking such a long time to compile a package, degrade my productivity, and then have the package break some portions of my system and have to spend more time fixing the problem. KDE 3.5 installed on Arch in like a couple of minutes so if something would go wrong with a package I would have a lot more time to fix the problem. So far, the ivtv package is the only one that I have had a problem with.
I am not hating on Gentoo but it's just that it stopped working the way that I wanted it to. My opinion of the operating systems that people use is that as long as you are not using Windows then you are cool in my book. It could even be something crazy like SCO UnixWare or OpenServer and I would respect that.
As for what I said about Gentoo, it was a great distro for the most part during the year and a half that I used it but too much crap happened the last month that I used it. The thing that really made me get upset was when I tried KDE 3.5. It took over 12 hours to compile and then it broke some KDE apps, including my KDE 3.4 install. I used revdep-rebuild to find what caused the breakage and it found nothing wrong. I tried recompiling some of the apps that were broken, like K3B, and that didn't help. Also, a superficial problem, the version of Konqueror included in KDE 3.5 didn't pass the Acid2 test. I figured what was the point of taking such a long time to compile a package, degrade my productivity, and then have the package break some portions of my system and have to spend more time fixing the problem. KDE 3.5 installed on Arch in like a couple of minutes so if something would go wrong with a package I would have a lot more time to fix the problem. So far, the ivtv package is the only one that I have had a problem with.
I am not hating on Gentoo but it's just that it stopped working the way that I wanted it to. My opinion of the operating systems that people use is that as long as you are not using Windows then you are cool in my book. It could even be something crazy like SCO UnixWare or OpenServer and I would respect that.
Last edited by Ryochan7 on Thu Jan 05, 2006 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
Back in the day Sco was actually a very good product. It was the very first *nix I ever installed on x86 hardware. This was like 1995. Now I feel old.Ryochan7 wrote:My opinion of the operating systems that people use is that as long as you are not using Windows then you are cool in my book. It could even be crazy like SCO UnixWare or OpenServer and I would respect that.
Glad to hear you're liking Arch. I'm liking it as well. More than likely I'll migrate my main workstation to Arch after I finish up some projects I'm working on and have some time.
Last edited by Patrick on Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'm glad you like Arch, Ryochan7. It took me some time to understand it enough to become somewhat competent with it, but I feel it was well worth the effort.
It's been over a month of easy upgrades and installs for me. Now all of our home PCs (and one at the office) are running Arch (well Underground Desktop... but that's just a means to an end).
It's been over a month of easy upgrades and installs for me. Now all of our home PCs (and one at the office) are running Arch (well Underground Desktop... but that's just a means to an end).