Tokk the plunge into Arch

[McLovin]

Well I was talking someone on another post about Arch, and I did it, I took the plunge and installed it, took about 5-6 hours to get a fully wokring Gnome GUI, and EVERY THING has to be compiled by hand, kind of like Gentoo, but it is very interesting, very different from Mint, or Debian in general, no type of graphical installer, all compiling, pretty quick though. I'm gonna give a go for a few weeks, and see how it is, but Mint will ALWAYS be my main distro of choice.
Although I think I would like to get the source code for the mint apps from Clem and see if maybe I can make a Sidux Gnome Mint, or a Debian Mint of my own, just for personal use and learning, hmmmmm, Clem???...........

[Husse]

This is what our homepage states about source
If you want to access their source code you can use the apt-get source command. If you can't find what you're looking for please write to root AT linuxmint DOT com and we'll provide the source to you.

[Andy Mack]

I tried Arch recently and I got stuck at at the first step, getting the internet to work hahaha, I'll wait till I'm a bit better with linux before trying it again.

[McLovin]

This is what our homepage states about source
If you want to access their source code you can use the apt-get source command. If you can't find what you're looking for please write to root AT linuxmint DOT com and we'll provide the source to you.

Thanx, Ill try get the source and maybe make my own Debian Mint, Arch forums is one of the rudest places Ive been to yet, they act like you should know everything about Arch right out the gate, and treat you like you're an idiot if you don't, so I'm gonna try something else, and then try to Mintify that.

[Husse]

That's not the way to "run" a forum - we have all been newbies - I'm only a year into Linux...but many years with Win (even DOS)

[sundayrefugee]

This is what our homepage states about source
If you want to access their source code you can use the apt-get source command. If you can't find what you're looking for please write to root AT linuxmint DOT com and we'll provide the source to you.

Thanx, Ill try get the source and maybe make my own Debian Mint, Arch forums is one of the rudest places Ive been to yet, they act like you should know everything about Arch right out the gate, and treat you like you're an idiot if you don't, so I'm gonna try something else, and then try to Mintify that.

The same command works in pure Debian If you're looking to compile the Mint Tools into Etch, IIRC, you'll also have to compile a newer GTK, libc, glib, etc... and whatever *those* .debs will in turn need, dependency-wise. So, it might be easier to grab a daily snapshot of Lenny, or aptitude dist-upgrade to Lenny from an Etch install first Also, a good package to install, after installing Lenny, is the apt-listbug package - it'll give you a nice warning before doing anything you might regret

But, in my experience, there's very little (if any at all) performance difference between binary and compiled Debian packages and installations. Even in Gentoo, with all of your useflags set correctly, etc... the performance is usually so minimal it's all about bragging rights It's undeniably fun, and enabling everything and the kitchen sink, setting your CPU flags just right (-nocona here, for instance), and then recompiling your entire system is pretty cool, but doesn't net you a whole lot in real-life use

And in Debian, compiling is rather different. I'm not trying to bash - man, it's geeky fun if you have the time - but there's *very* little difference

[MagnusB]

First off, pacman uses binary packages as well, not compiling, but it is fast and an awesome tool. I was surprised to see that there were a GUI tool written i Java for it, but I never considered to install it..
But it is sad to hear that Arch has an elitist forum, in fact, I am surprised, since the newbie installation guide on their wiki was exceptionally well written and helpful. But Arch is a fun distro and fun to tinker with, especially since their boot scripts are well documented and easy to configure to your needs. What I especially like about Arch is that you get a system that you is exactly what you want (after some post installation tinkering), without all the work a Gentoo installation requires.

[Fred]

I spent quite some time on the Gentoo forums. It is a different world. To survive there you have to develop a thick skin and learn how to bite back when the need arises. Since Arch is a source distro I would suspect some of the same kind of attitude.

I must say though, there a lot of very knowledgeable people in the Gentoo forums. If you can take the heat, you can learn a lot. Usually once you have shown that you aren't a quitter, you are willing to work hard, and basically they can't run you off, somebody will take you under their wing and mentor you. But you do have to prove yourself and there is a somewhat elitist attitude to get past.

Fred

[timw06]

I am amazed by the amount of misinformation in this thread...

Arch is not source based. Pacman itself only installs binary packages.

Secondly, the Arch forums are, in my experience a very friendly place.