Fedora 16 Replaces Arch Linux
I’m officially finished messing around with operating systems for awhile, and I’m officially done with Arch Linux. I re-installed my office machine with Arch Linux a while back, and it was a great experience. Except for one thing. It sucked.
Seriously, if it wasn’t for the one tiny detail of Arch Linux sucking, it would have been awesome.
To be fair, I didn’t try hard enough. But, I just want an OS that works. Arch Linux is a great OS for performance nerds, like Gentoo fans who enjoy compiling every module for days. In my own experience, this is a fun way to really get to know Linux. However, those days are behind me and I just want an OS that works.
Arch Linux is so light and fast, but it’s also a desolate place where nothing lives but the core OS. You have to install every package manually and when I found that even the fucking calculator had to be installed (as part of gnome-extra) well, that was the last straw.
So I made an executive decision and did something I haven’t done in years.
I installed Fedora. Fedora 16.
Why? Two reasons. For one, most of our software runs on Redhat and Fedora is in the same family. Second, I use dual monitors and Ubuntu has become a complete idiot when it comes to managing that.
Well so far so good because Fedora 16 (Verne) works right out of the box. Yep. Everything works: external monitors (both of them) work which includes flipping them vertically or horizontally without having to mess around with your xorg.conf. No wireless issues, and the clean install is fast and snappy. Overall, Fedora 16 is a huge improvement over whatever Fedora I used in the past (like 2008). Even YUM feels better and package management seems tighter.
So for now I’m just going to use it as a regular desktop and see if any issues come up. I really have nothing else to say about it right now because I’m still blown away by the fact that the whole installation was complete and working in under 20 minutes. Also, xfce is light and clean. Had to install the ms-fonts after the fact, but no big deal.
Here’s the default desktop. Looking kinda Steampunk:
Mike, one question. Is that you in the submarine?
Shawn´s last [type] ..Travelling A Broad – I mean Abroad
@Shawn
No, it’s Captain Nemo. Fedora 16 is code named Verne and the desktop wallpaper is an homage to Jules Verne’s Nautilus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus_(Verne)
Don’t you know nothin’?
Nice post Mike i was thinking on installing Arch Linux.
ArchLinux just sucks and that’s it.
I did a fresh install, updated and … no longer boot.
Something like tzdata errors from THEIR OWN repositories breaks the system, then I updated that and pcre libs too, and all system needed to be updated.
While doing that it updated something like ‘linux’ package (the kernel) and the system is DEAD.
When booting it does not recognize the disk, udev does not work and my system is all gone.
Good it was a fresh install but that really scared me for future updates.
No no no no… I surely don’t want a system like this.
Think twice if you’re planning to install archlinux, if you’re mad enough to loose all your work and configuration in just a second.
Fedora is a good choice, I’ve been using that for years and I’m very happy with it.
Not perfect but I trust this system.
@fair man
Arch has become (in)famous for their upgrades that leave your system in a disastrous state. I have a lot of colleagues that used Arch but eventually switched back to solid distros like Fedora. I used to despise Yum, but it’s really improved over the years.
mike´s last [type] ..It’s Time To Make A Huge Salad
I’m not sure why you had such a bad experience with Arch. I for one have been running it for over 3 years now with great success and none of the issues you have mentioned above. I do a full system update on a daily basis, use not two but three monitors and wireless as well, all without the slightest hiccup.