I’ve installed arch Linux and liked it, but lfs and Gentoo would be too time consuming compiling everything and not doing anything during and after install. Are there any distros like arch that don’t have me compiling everything?
NixOS or GNU Guix are your best options for advanced distributions. Guix is a much newer project so theres a lot of ways you can contribute.
Guix isn’t a Linux distro but it’s definitely unique and probably for advanced users! :)
lol I didn’t know Hurd was still a thing
They mean ‘Guix System’. Just like there is ‘Nix’ the package manager and ‘NixOS’ the distro, there is ‘Guix’ the package manager and ‘Guix System’ the distro.
Have you at least tried to install Gentoo? Everyone has to think they can, and fail, at least once in their lives.
This comment feels like an XKCD quote.
Close, XKCD:456.
It’s a great way to polish you sysadmin and troubleshooting skills, that’s for sure.
What’s the purpose? Which application do you have running on Linux that you think you need to compile everything, configure everything, and that will only run on an “advanced” distro?
Is it some high specialized clustered distributed high performance, high availability computing application where you need your own kernel tweaks in?
Or are you just a distro hopper, tinkering just for the sake of it and for imaginary bragging rights? If it’s for learning, try to establish a specific real goal and learn how to reach it.
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Similar to arch in what way? What about arch don’t you like, you can look at other arch-based distros.
Most distributions have binary package managers anyways, so you won’t struggle to find some.
There isn’t anything about arch I specifically don’t like, I’d just like to see if there’s anything that’s better in a certain criteria I don’t yet know of.
There are lots of good distros. The question is a bit too vague for useful answers.
You could always try NixOS.
Arch may not be particularly easy to use, but it’s a simple system, in that you can build a mental model of your entire setup with a fraction of the effort and time that you’d need to expend with other systems. It gives you the standard Linux experience without fuss, or handholding.
Nix, however, gives you several capabilities that other systems won’t, but you’re paying for that through its learning curve.
Just enable flatpaks or install Pop_OS! and use only flatpaks.
Exactly. If it is the rolling nature op does actualy like perhaps opensuse tumblweed is a good one to try?
What do you mean by “not doing anything during and after install” re Gentoo?
Your computer isn’t held hostage during compilation of that was your impression
Until it hangs because I tried to play Classic Doom.
My personal journey was Arch > Void > Gentoo > Arch > Nix > Void again > realizing there’s nothing really like Arch and going back for good. Hope this helps!
Same
Try Void
NixOS! I can’t for the life of me figure this shit out. It just won’t click for me but I get the advantages so I wanna use it so bad
I completely agree with this, I want to use it so badly but I think the documentation and other video tutorials aren’t explaining it in a way that clicks for me, maybe?
not doing anything during and after install
You know that those of us who use Gentoo as a daily driver don’t just stare there and watch things compile, right?
Maybe once during the initial install but on a modern system kicking off updates before bed and coming back in the morning to an updated computer isn’t unusual (just read any news and postinst messages).
When I was using it, every two or three months. And even then, kick off an update or install, go to the bathroom, get some coffee, come back and it’s ready.
What do you need that Arch doesn’t provide?
OP is probably complaining about AUR packages needing to be compiled most of the time. In that case, use the chaotic AUR. If you don’t trust it, then compile the software from the AUR yourself.
Are the AUR helper applications still not well documented these days?
Why would a wrapper around pacman need documentation? Anyways, --help and the Arch Wiki have it too.
I like Void, it feels a little more like a BSD. But I’ve only really used it for experimentation, no idea what it’s like as a daily driver.
You could also try an actual BSD. OpenBSD has a very clear style and direction which I like but be careful when partitioning, they have their own ‘disklabel’ system. Updates are really streamlined with syspatch and sysupgrade.
NetBSD had a nice TUI installer. It may appear a bit less focussed on its aims but has a lot going for it: many supporter platforms, a friendly community, etc.
There’s also FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD, possibly more but I don’t have much experience with those.
The FreeBSD handbook is amazing for this! IMO the best guide out there for an operating system
What do you mean? Arch doesn’t have you “compiling everything”. It’s a mostly binary distribution. The Arch repositories are binary, and more than a few of the packages in the AUR are binary as well.
I’m also not following “not doing anything during and after install” - what do you mean by after install in that sentence?
I’d love to help, but I can’t figure out what your issue is. If you’re looking for something like Arch, but faster and easier to set up, try Endeavor - it’s basically Arch with a graphical installer and some neat extra tools.
I’d also suggest looking in to Void, since you don’t appear to be afraid of the command line. You’ll find it similar in approach to Arch, but everything is binary packages; there’s no compiling unless you grab dev tools and pull the source from Github or Codeberg or whatever yourself.
I’m also not following “not doing anything during and after install” - what do you mean by after install in that sentence?
I made the mistake of trying to pacman -S librewolf not realizing it was going to compile from source. An hour later (on my Ryzen 7 5800X) it wasn’t finished, so I killed it and installed librewolf-bin.
librewolf is not an official arch package it is in AUR. So you couldn’t have just typed pacman -S librewolf to compile it; and if you really wanted it without compiling libreworlf-bin.
You’re right, I used
yay. I usedpacmanto illustrate the point.
What do you mean by “advanced Linux distro”?
If you mean starting at a minimal starting point and only installing what you need, then you may as well start off with a minimal Debian netinst, then add the stuff you want once you’ve got the minimal system installed.
Are you just looking for something new to explore or are there issues you have with Arch that you hope do not exist on other distros? Simply put what is it you are looking for?
What do you mean by “Like arch” exactly? What part of it would you like to keep in your next distro?
I’ve tried quite a few and have been on the debian train for ~5 years simply due to stability and usability
