As a Linux distro addict, I’ve heard of Arch many times over the years but for some reason, I’d never actually given it a shot. In particular, one aspect that’s always interested me has been Arch’s homegrown package management system, pacman. Today we’ll be finding out what Arch is all about.

The Arch Linux project was started by Judd Vinet in his attempt to create his own ideal distribution. He wanted to make a lightweight and simple system aimed at power users.

Arch has been my primary Linux distribution for two years and I dual boot it with Windows XP on my Thinkpad. I like Arch for its KISS principle, good speed and repository full of latest stable packages. According to Arch Wiki , Arch Linux is an independent i686-optimized community distribution for intermediate and advanced Linux users.

The Arch fans are always really passionate and enthusiastic in describing it to me; so I figured it was high time I found out for myself. After many broken promises and much procrastination, I finally made it onto Arch Linux and that’s where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks now.

I’ve been curious about Arch for a long time and now finally I had the opportunity to try it out. Basically, I’m giving new life to an old PC and thus I’m exploring ways to use the most lightweight software possible. That means choosing the right applications and the right distribution. I’m not sure if Arch is the right distribution, but I like it.

It’s been a month since I have installed Arch Linux on my workstation and I thought I would talk about this Linux distribution a bit. I will briefly outline what have been, and what is, my experience with Arch, and I believe I am going to stick with this particular flavor for a very long time.

Another month, another great Arch Linux newsletter for you to enjoy. It is interesting to see how much media exposure Arch Linux is gaining lately. We have a section dedicated to it full of links to different reviews or mentions of Arch Linux by the media. Also interesting is that Arch Linux was picked one of the five best distributions by Lifehacker.

I’ve been wanting to try Arch Linux for quite some time now. They seem to have a similar aesthetic to Gentoo in that the main mission of Arch is to build your operating system from the ground up.

If you spend a week or two with Arch Linux, you start to wonder if maybe the Ubuntu machine should be following the same game plan as the Arch contingent. Let me reply to that.