Arch Linux: My impressions.

OK, lately I've been blagging on Twitter, but I decided I needed a proper long-form rant about this fucking shit.

I recently finished repairing one of my projects that had been on hold since roughly the dawn of man. It's a PICMG all in one, with a big ol pretty LCD on the front, that never fucking booted. I was bored and had my solderin' iron out earlier, and decided to see what new capacitors would do to this thing.

Fix it up, throw some RAM on, and apply power...

... ... ... ... *beep!*

I love the sound of an Award BIOS starting POST.

So I get it all fixed up, and after about half an hour of trying to reconfigure the LCD (which I finally got working, at long-ass last!), I'm ready to install an OS.

"But iKitsune!", you cry. "What OS are you going to install?!"

Since my (still MIA) mate Indrora and my friend Miff both use Arch, I wanted to give it a shot. I didn't even get as far as downloading the fucking ISO.

I decided to look at the Arch wiki before downloading, starting with the section "Arch Linux - Beginner's Guide". I figured that I've installed Debian 700,000,000 times over the years, Arch's installer should be a snap, but I'd take a look at an overview of the installation process.

Apparently the installer just installs the bare, core minimum of the OS and then dumps you into a script that kindasorta lets you bumble through installing everything. They say it's "The Arch Way".

FUCK THAT.

I'm reading on about -why- they inflict this braindeadery upon you, and they say it "makes you feel more in control of your system".

AGAIN, FUCK THAT.

Arch also says this in their comparison to Debian on their wiki:

"Debian has a more vehement stance on free software. Arch is more lenient when it comes to 'non-free' packages as defined by GNU."

Heh.

Personally, I like debian-installer. Yes, it's still not finished after development was started in 66 million BC by Barney Rubble on a computer that had a bird with a chisel in it, but that's part of its charm. Additionally, d-i lets you have just as much control over your install as Arch, but doesn't just drop you off in the middle of a cornfield and tell you to walk to town unless you tell it to.

I'm still going to give Arch a shot, but /damn/. TBH, I'm probably going to end up with Debian sid on this computer.