Going back to a traditional distro coming from rolling release

Opinion article, what is referred to in this is only a point of view provided by the author, it is likely that your criteria discern from what is written.

Almost a year ago, I wrote an article where I commented on how complicated it could be to install a distro like Arch Linux on a Mac computer. Almost a year has passed, and after three consecutive winters of having used the distro rolling release par excellence, the I have left and gone to another.

The logical thing is that if you come from Arch, your next step is Gentoo, Funtoo, maybe Slackware or already exaggerating, Linux From Scratch (although technically it cannot be considered a distro but rather an instruction book). So which of these flavors of Linux have I decided to adopt?

The answer is simple: Ubuntu.

No, it's not a joke. An Arch Linux user has returned to Ubuntu, and he couldn't be more comfortable.
But why the hell would he do that? Was it not from this distribution that he fled in the first place? Not comfortable with the versatility of the system? Not having to update every six months? Of always having the latest version of everything?

Of course yes. So what is the problem?

The problem is the tiempo

When I first installed Arch Linux three years ago, it was on a weekend, a few days before the end of the semester. I was already bored with Fedora and wanted to try something new. And then I downloaded an ISO of Arch Linux, I put it on a USB and I spent the whole purpose installing, configuring and figuring out how that bunch of tools called Arch worked. And I learned quite a bit in the process.

But it was also a whole weekend, a weekend that I could give myself with pleasure because I was a student with nothing better to do.

Those times have changed. I've had a job as a Web Developer for a few months now, and every time I need one or another different tool. Node.js, Python 2 and 3, many versions of Ruby, MongoDB, Redis, Neo4J, Java, Nginx, Docker, PostgreSQL, etc.

My Windows colleagues have everything but the NoSQL and Docker servers without much of a problem. Those of OS X can access all that from Homebrew without any complications, those of Ubuntu sometimes have conflicts between versions of tools but that is fixed with a PPA. What problem do I have? To get the tools, none. The problem is setting them up.

You see, someone on OS X, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc., can have LAMP in about three command lines in the terminal. An Arch Linux wiki must be read to even enable PHP support. They have the NPM packages in a simple sudo npm install -g , I have had to modify the installation script already a couple of times because for Arch Linux, python refers to Python 3, and for the rest of the world it refers to Python 2. 

I've never heard OS X guys say that they couldn't work for X hours because xorg-server was updated and the AMD driver breaks when this happens. Not even Ubuntu, and both are Linux systems. None of them had to open the terminal and restart in the middle of the board to reload the Broadcom card module because they went from Linux 3.18 to 3.19 and therefore they do not have the driver in the new kernel that allows Wi-Fi. work.

In short, I can no longer stick to this kind of thing. There was a time when I had all the time and patience in the world to figure out the what and why of the errors, exceptions and others that Arch threw, and I learned a lot. But those times have changed now what I need is a system that works, that is simple to install, maintain, and with which I can concentrate on working on the client software, not on configuring my own.

And it is what I have found in Ubuntu. It is simple and that is its strength. RVM, NodeSource and some PPAs have allowed me to have what I need. And that's it. There is no more problem. To be honest, I haven't felt so comfortable for a long time.

Well, at least from now until it is completely essential to write iOS applications, at that moment the path to OS X will be sealed.


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  1.   elav said

    I understand what you are saying, but for your problem I have a solution: Virtual Machine. I use Antergos, but since I know that configuring a LAMP is pretty screwed up, because I install an MV with VirtualBox or Qemu-KVM, and there I mount an Ubuntu Server or Debian Server and that's it .. best of all, I can load with my development stack for anywhere .. and if it breaks or something, well it doesn't matter .. it was a MV .. 😀

    1.    yukiteru said

      Exactly that is the best solution @elav. I now in Funtoo where "time is wasted compiling even the smallest tool" and my work asks me to be aware of servers that are under Debian, so for those purposes I simply set up a VM, I test and do all my previous work there , and then move it seamlessly to the servers and leave them running smoothly between modifications.

      That has been the best solution for me, mounting a VM with KVM / QEMU + libvirt with ssh and vnc support, and not worrying about virtualbox modules that sometimes also break with kernel updates.

    2.    Sam burgos said

      Well in that if I agree with you, virtualizing is the best because if it is the case, all I do is mount the VM I need (using X tool), even in my work I have a Core2Quad PC that had an interesting history reinstalling the XP (it is his license so there was no other) and in the end I have a real Linux with its virtual XP for work, so it is a great tool.

      Now the other point against is the equipment: unfortunately the laptop that I have (and as well as others with their respective laptop / desktop computers) does not have that capacity and I have no other option than to install it in real time; precisely the reasons for my university is what has prevented me from going to Archlinux, not because I don't want to, but because I need something to work fast because even if I have the patience with this distro (and thank God if I have it) the teachers are not going to say « Ahh you use Archlinux and the task is for Tuesday? So that's why I'll leave it for the other weekend while you solve dependencies or problems »

      Coming out of my semester I will be able to think about installing it and fight with any detail that comes out but in the meantime, I am in Mint with dual boot Win8 due to the subjects at my university. The powerful team to virtualize is also in my plans but I need the resources for it, so while there I will continue in traditional distros

    3.    Alfonso said

      It's my case, I'm tired of spending time configuring and fixing things. I was on Ubuntu, (I think with version 8). Then I went through Debian, LinuxMint, Arch, then Manjaro, Antergos, and others. Now I'm on Ubuntu again (what a break!), Although the truth is, I still "peak" still with some distro.

  2.   krlos yellow said

    That is why I did not go into a rolling release, you mentioned many things that I identify with, although I do not work as a programmer.

    regards

  3.   kristianjgs said

    I think what you say is true. I know that the level of those of us who use Linux over another OS is higher, since being some complicated things often forces us to understand from the bottom how things work. but I think that like windows or Mac things should be made easy and that is where the popularity of those OS lies. Virtual machine? It can be, but not everyone should have the knowledge or the time to do it. Therein lies the unpopularity of Linux. That yum, apt, pacman, etc ... Linux should be for normal beings and not computer nerds as in some cases we are.

    1.    yukiteru said

      "Linux should be for normal beings and not computer nerds as in some cases we are."

      I think that rather the problem of the "unpopularity" of Linux lies in something else that many people find it difficult to accept (because of that saying that says: We see the needle in another's eye, but not the beam that is in ours) and is that mental laziness, apathy for a comprehensive learning of the technologies that surround us, makes us more dependent on Click'n Run and calls for technical support, only to start complaining after being charged dearly for the service provided (I tell you that I have lived that countless times because it is my job). Anyway, in Linux you have to choose, because there are distros that are for Click'n Run users and distros for nerds who read the manual and know what to do if something goes wrong.

      Greetings.

      1.    Javier said

        I sincerely believe that your comment is somewhat biased. I think you greatly reduce the diversity behind "Click'n Run" users as you call them. That's the problem with some of the Linux "specialists" believing that all the rest of us have nothing to do in our life and that we are practically sitting around scratching our ... navel. We are people of different trades and professions. For example, I have personally gotten into the world of anthropology and recently (just a few days ago) I finished my thesis and solving everything for the degree, so my attention to technology is related to the time that the other leaves me. Since I'm most likely going for a master's degree, it will be really weird that I spend more time on computing.

        I am an Ubuntu user and I quite liked the system, for my limited time and my interest (although I have it, I do not plan to dedicate myself to it) in computing, Ubuntu represented a challenge because I had to play again (as a child I arrived to use it) the terminal and I learned but I do not intend to dedicate myself to this. I think your appreciation of pointing out that Linux's unpopularity is based on "mental laziness, apathy for a comprehensive learning of the technologies around us" is the result of ignorance (or probably a very altered state of consciousness in the style of Apollonian) that there is more to the world than computing.

        I admire people who are dedicated to technology but it is not the only thing. I was lucky to have support for Ubuntu from less pretentious people and that if it helps the novice like me and for which I am very grateful and whenever I can I comment on the ignorance I have on the subject. I support software and free and I have convinced myself of it (not in a radical way like Stallman) ... however ... Don't stain! the world is diverse and diversity is necessary.

        By the way, my congratulations and thanks to the entire Linux community.

      2.    eliotime3000 said

        […] And is that mental laziness, apathy for a comprehensive learning of the technologies that surround us, makes us more dependent on Click'n Run and calls for technical support, only to start complaining after they are charges very dearly for the service provided (I tell you, I have lived that countless times because it is my job). […]

        Or rather, your job is so time-consuming that you often struggle to invest what little free time you have to dedicate to Gentoo or Arch.

        In my case, I have realized that Windows has managed to "standardize" its users, but with the change of heads that it has had recently, it is possible that Windows and GNU / Linux users will stop being silly and thus learn that Many times they have similarities and differences (those who use Windows have to fight because of the registry editor and certain components, while in GNU / Linux, they have to deal with more critical layer 8 problems than Windows users).

      3.    yukiteru said

        @Javier I understand your point of view and if I generalize the case too much due to my experiences, but the truth is that we are in a world where technology reaches us everywhere and in everything we do, even in your anthropology work you have had and will have to use computers, software and so on, unless you want to work with paper and pencil, or as our ancestors did with clay or scribbling on stone. Nowadays, learning to use these tools has become something elementary and fundamental in our lives.

        There are users of users all over the world, if they are one of those who like Click'nRun well, they just want to install something and get to work, and if they like tinkering with the OS, then better, that way they not only know how to use the tool but they know how it works and in the end that results in something even more beneficial, as you yourself have been able to verify when third parties gave you their help when you had X or Y problems with Ubuntu.

        When I initially answered on the subject of "Linux unpopularity", I did so on the premise that those who have a first contact with the OS either: Have the wrong ideas, or have apathy (lack of motivation) to learn. In my particular case, I have had cases doing technical service, of people who come up and tell me that what I install (Firefox) is not the Internet and that it is useless, and no matter how much I explain, they keep telling me the same thing. If that's not apathy in learning, I don't know what else to call it. Still, being my job, I do all the necessary paraphernalia to install Internet Explorer on Linux, but they seem to care little when you pass the bill to him, because he's just a NERD fixing computers anyway.

        http://i.imgur.com/AwvWsex.jpg

        Greetings.

      4.    Javier said

        I agree but using the term "mental laziness" leaves a lot to be desired. Look, it's as if I said "if you don't read The Argonauts of the Pacific" by Mallinowski, "The Golden Branch" by Frazer, "The Nuer" by Radcliffe-Brown or "The Suicide" by Durkheim it is because you are mentally lazy or apathetic about to learn". Believe me that they are good partitions in many very tedious moments. I think you do not consider that many of us use technology because it makes our own work easier (as you have pointed out with the use of the computer for jobs that I have to do). I like to use the computer a bit beyond what the generality uses it, however I have no intention of dedicating myself to it. That is why I think that LInux needs to get closer to the common user.

        Perhaps the error that I think you have is precision in the use of terms.

  4.   Jorge said

    I respect what you say, although I do not share it. After Arch, I switched to Gentoo, and now to Funtoo, and I had no drama in setting up a LAMP server. Yes, setting up is a drag, but it didn't take me more than 5 minutes. I found a lot of useful documentation, and maybe I've gotten too used to doing things by hand by now.
    Anyway, have a good trip.

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      Custom often saves time when installing a distro that normally requires a lot of manual intervention.

  5.   edo said

    I found that balance in manjaro, but that depends on each one

  6.   mmm said

    I do not know very well what this article or opinion comes from. It simply seems like someone saying "I change one distro for this other and I have these reasons" ... aha, well, what good a lot of people change distros and have their reasons. Good for you that you managed to carry on with your work. Good luck with the job!

  7.   alecardv said

    And in general I think it's what we all need, something that just works.
    I say it because the same experience happened to me, I was an arch user for a year and a half and finally returned to ubuntu (although I have opensuse on the desktop pc) for this great reason, many times one just wants to relax and enjoy everything works without touching your code or you just don't have time for that anymore.

  8.   Gibran barrera said

    I share your opinion, I went from Arch, after several problems with the network, to Debian and to this day it is my favorite super stable distro, it gets along well with the servers, and has improved in terms of the supported software, with a simple apt-get everything is updated, a dpkg and you install the network driver offline, in short they should and derivatives have become my winning combination.

    I have a netbook and I'm messing with ubuntu and mint xfce to see what happens. Without a doubt in the business sector "time is money".

  9.   Oscar Quisbert-Lopez said

    The answer to your problems is called vagrant

    1.    Rabba said

      I agree with the colleague, between vagrant and docker you can do what you say that complicates you, your motives are still respected and I appreciate sharing your vision, greetings.

  10.   William Garron said

    Hello, it almost seems that I wrote this 🙂

    I also had a great time with Arch and I would love to have the time to continue with him, but now I am with OS X and Ubuntu in the being. For a year or more Arch was on my Linode supporting my page (Drupal), now he wouldn't

    Thanks for the article, nice reading.

  11.   Christopher Valerius said

    I totally understand that problem. I am DevOps and I have to build thousands of instances with n configurations ... and by the nature of my work I must know from C to javascript and ruby. The solution I found is to automate my settings. chef-solo is a powerful tool when it comes to doing it. So I have my work laptop and the personal one synchronized in configurations if necessary. As for drivers. I have never had problems beyond VirtualBox that every time I install a new kernel I need to recompile with dkms, but as I told you, archlinux is still my distro because its flexibility, and volatility is handled by automating my configuration. Even now I am working on plasma-next which is not the most stable and I have not had problems

  12.   Jesus Carpio said

    I share your opinion, and wait for you to get married and have children, the time is even shorter. The use of virtual machines for me are for testing and not to have your work there.

    1.    Horace Sachetto said

      Totally agree with Jesús Carpio. His comment made me laugh a lot.

      I have been using Ubuntu for eight years and I think I would never go back to Windows. Without being a "nerd", far from it, I used to spend hours "tinkering" with the operating system; But since I got married and had a daughter, the time to do that was reduced to zero. Now I just update the system. For the rest, everything works perfectly well and that is what interests me.

  13.   ulysses said

    Don't worry, it has happened to all of us. Reconcile work, family life, ... many of us are no longer adolescents to be wasting time configuring the distribution of your dreams. This is why I bought an iMac and when I work, I work without complications. Be careful, it does not mean that I have not installed the odd Linux distro to my iMac, but due to lack of time I always work on OSX, and when I get bored, like now, well here I am creating an Ubuntu Remix 15.04 with Customizer, hehe. If in the end, we are all nerds 😉

    1.    William Garron said

      Too bad, but you're right, sometimes I think I was born a little early, I would have liked to be a teenager in 2005 🙂

  14.   Chaparral said

    Well at the moment you got the peace of mind but the question is until when?
    The thirst for knowledge has no limits.

  15.   Maximus said

    Indeed, turning to the console should be an option, not a necessity. Ubuntu is open to criticism in many respects but "for me" it is the Linux distribution that most allows me to abstract myself precisely from the operating system.

  16.   rober said

    The title has nothing to do with what is written. You are talking about a distro in which you cook it and you eat it with one that simply by adding a few ppa you have already done it, what does rolling have to do with a traditional distro in this? Wouldn't it be better to edit the title and put "step of the settings that make me waste a lot of time, I'm going to keep it simple"?

  17.   Wolf said

    I fully understand it. With the arrival of Unity, I jumped to Arch back in the distant 2011, and the first installation took time. To say that I used that same installation until two weeks ago, and although I sometimes had problems with the Catalyst driver, it was a fairly stable experience. It happens that these weeks I started to install Yosemite on my PC -hackintosh- and due to a huge error I loaded Arch, so I had to reinstall it. It took me 1 hour and a half to get almost everything fine-tuned, this time. It was already filmed and the experience shows.

    However, I am also aware that updates can sell you out. It is a rolling release distro and that means that the packages are updated as they come out, but the stability is not at all ideal for a work environment. Although you always have the option of not updating and staying in stable packages.

    And as time goes by, I too am feeling the need to have a stable operating system that allows me to work and stop nonsense. Time is scarce for everyone, but I'm still on Arch for now, which doesn't mean that I've installed Ubuntu on another mini partition in case there's a bigger mess, as a rescue.

    Anyway, more than whether it is distro rolling or not, I believe that the problem today is that the software gives the feeling of being continuously in a beta phase. KDE goes to Plasma 5 and Plasma still lacks a lot of stability, but all the distros are already jumping to the new version. Catalyst is a crappy driver, but a must for good 3D performance. They are just examples. Because, anyway, we have come a long way since I entered this world back in 2008 ...

  18.   Miguel Mayol Tur said

    Manjaro covers almost perfectly those Arch flaws that you mention in the article.
    But the important thing is to be productive, and "what works."

    An OSX precision is POSIX, Free BSD at its core but not Linux, which if it is Chrome OS is increasingly used by developers, of which you will find many articles in the blogosphere (With crouton, with sshs, with extensions etc. )

  19.   kik1n said

    Totally agree.
    I used Arch for a long time, but it broke. I went through many distros and came back to this one, seeing that it is a very complete distro, with a large number of packages, a very good wiki, it learns a lot, and excellent customization, but again, an update can break the system or it can damage it and Also as you say, installing LAMP in arch one has to be fiddling around, instead in Deb and derivatives just by installing it, it asks for a password and that's it.

    Now I'm on Xubuntu Devel, it's like having Debian Testing, but on Ubuntu, only:
    It has Xfce better integrated and the Ubuntu app in the multimedia bar (Clementine, VLC, etc ...)
    It's more current (Not to Arch degree and I liked that).
    Greater amount of packages (has a few more 😀).
    It doesn't remove packages from your repos (Debian Testing now doesn't have acetoneiso and furiosmount).
    It has support for Ati drivers (I'm not saying Debian doesn't, just that it surprised me).
    Its installation was 2 or> 3 hrs of Debian.

    Comparing with Debian Testing or Arch, * buntu Devel really liked me, for having everything instantly, automatic configuration and if I screw up the system, it doesn't take me 30 min to recover everything and with a clean installation.

    PS: By the way, how is OSX doing? Before I was curious about a Mac, but seeing that they are very expensive, I am not encouraged, but OSX if it catches my attention.

    1.    Gabo said

      Is xubuntu-devel is rolling release or how?
      or is it another flavor?
      where can I get it?
      salu2

      1.    kik1n said

        Any * buntu has a repos called devel, if you modify them in /etc/apt/sources.list, you can get a similar effect to Debian Testing.

  20.   Okular said

    Brother you make a storm out of a glass of water, Arch is not to blame that you lack organization. Nobody forces you to update yourself in the middle of a project / job or whatever, and neither should you. But you should be attentive, maybe be on the lookout in arch forums or other information channels or better yet, look for other users who work with their arch in production and if you do not find them, propose to join them. It will be beneficial for everyone and you will help to give back something to the community that has already given you so much disinterestedly.

    1.    pollitux said

      I agree with your comment @okular the author of the post is blaming arch for the lack of information from the author, I use antecedents and it took no more than 10 minutes to configure the development tools he used.

      Python 2 and 3, node.js, Mongodb Mongodb, mysql, play frameworframework, etc ...

      1.    juanjo said

        Those 10 minutes in a company or organization are fatal apart from the time reading the documentation and in a couple of hours you must give status of your project when they are of great importance, it is not a problem of time or organization, it is that arch is really an excellent distro but no rolling release works for a high demand production environment, in fact ubuntu works only half.

      2.    joaco said

        What about OpenSUSE Tumbleweed or Manjaro, which they have already named?

  21.   aeneas_e said

    I agree with you on the issue of time and productivity. I work with my Xubuntu every day and I don't have time to experiment (I would love to!)
    I thank those who can and dedicate their hours and brains to solve one and a thousand problems that later we, in a stable distro, take full advantage of working.
    Hugs,
    E.

  22.   Leo said

    I share your decision, because time issues I was forced to leave Arch, and move to Opensuse, and now (and I think definitely) to Kubuntu LTS.
    I'm not going to say if one is better than the other, but when there is no time, an "out of the box" distro is a very good option.

  23.   Raphael Mardechai said

    I agree, for that reason I stayed with Ubuntu, PPAs solve life greatly. But I think I'm going to play it with Fedora xD to see how it goes, other than that I have two machines, one Linux and another Windows, so I can cover myself with this while I configure the other.

    1.    Mariano Rajoy said

      PPAs make the system very unstable when you add a lot

      1.    Leo said

        Mostly it happens if the PPAs install packages that can be critical for the system or for the desktop environment, but if it is to install specific programs it is unlikely that something will happen (in theory).

      2.    Raphael Mardechai said

        Sure xD, I was saying it because you can usually get a .deb. But some programs only give you to compile, and there is always a PPA that saves your life XD.

  24.   Chicxulub Kukulkan said

    I'm interested in how you installed ArchLinux on a Mac. What kind of Mac is it? What version of Mac OS X did you have? Did you have to install rEFIt or rEFInd, or did you completely format the hard drive?

    I would also like to know how to install a distro (Gentoo, Slackware) on an external USB 3.0 hard drive and that I can connect it to any computer (Mac, Windows ...)

    Thanks in advance 🙂.

  25.   zetaka01 said

    You're right, I also get tired of adjusting my XP-LMDE, I have a dual boot, no virtualization fagots, I have an old computer with little memory. Ah, LMDE just came out again, it's my turn. How tired.
    Well, I would go directly to Windows, it doesn't waste my time, so I dedicate myself to other bullshit. If you are tired chicken, I am 57 years old and I still like to polish my SO.

  26.   Ari o'connolly said

    I understand you perfectly. It tires me that they eat people's bocho, with that: «Ubuntu is for beginners, it's heavy, it's crap ... etc, etc, etc. A modern system must be above all, user-friendly, productive, it must have adequate support ... Ubuntu has all that.
    Many years ago I came to Linux for Ubuntu, and then (as expected) I started the pilgrimage to other distros. I really liked Sabayon ... but it didn't hold me back either ... and the other distro that was comfortable for me is Mint (it's still Ubuntu a bit tuned). In the end I went back to the beginning: "Ubuntu".
    The funny thing is, I never heard anyone refer to Windows as a "system for beginners."
    Ubuntu is… suitably flexible, and above all, it more than delivers on what it promises.

  27.   louis said

    Arch is a very good distro but it takes a lot of time that you can spend on other things. Good decision looking for an easy to configure distro, because the important thing about all this is not that it is the most modern or updated system but that it is friendly and easy to use. That is why I use Debian.

    1.    rafalinux said

      Impossible to agree with you more. It's like you've taken the words out of my mouth.

  28.   Koprotk said

    Therein lies the wonderful thing about Linux, if you want to learn a lot, you have distros like Gentoo and Arch, if you just want to Click'n Run you have Linux Mint and Ubuntu, neither is better or worse, each one fulfills different objectives and in the end, Linux is for for all tastes.

  29.   rafalinux said

    I have to agree with you. I think there comes a time in the life of a Linux user who has to choose, if he still wants to mess around in his car constantly, or if he prefers a car in which he doesn't have to mess around, because what he needs is to drive and go from one place to another. other.

    I was fooling around with many distros, and in the end I was left with one, with Debian. Ubuntu or Fedora are legitimate choices, of course, but Debian assures me that it is stable and that nothing is going to break when installing or uninstalling packages.

    You are not the only one to whom it happened. The best blogs I have followed have disappeared because the author reaches a new level, one in which he does not have time to write or make manuals or research his operating system on GNU / Linux.

    Good luck and good luck. It's just a new stage. More will come, and surely more interesting.

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      We're even. Fortunately, when I chose Debian, I thought first of stability, and not precisely of having the "latest versions" of the "x" component.

  30.   Master of the Wind said

    I used arch for many years, it is interesting to learn, but the issue for me really is if it is worth learning, or at least how to use it in each installation.

    I work as a web developer, and as a sysadmin, and for example, if I have to install a system for a server (or for my personal machine), it is counterproductive to spend so much time partitioning by hand, generating initramfs, installing bootloader, services like ssh, etc. I prefer a minimal centos so that there is no garbage in the installation, but that it solves the most essential in much less time.

    There is a lot of myth in arch, but I think that with a netinstall of fedora / opensuse, more or less the same objective of having the system as clean and customized is achieved.

    1.    elav said

      Luckily there is Antergos to get rid of that heavy task of partitioning and everything you comment 😉

    2.    joaco said

      I think the same, there is a lot of myth behind Arch.
      As it is lighter than the rest just for being Arch, which, at least in my case, it is not.
      Or that it is hyperstable, I am not saying that it is not stable, but you always find a bug.

      And I think that, if you know how to do it, you can do a minimal installation of any distro, only in Arch they make it easier for you and there is more documentation about it.

      1.    eliotime3000 said

        That same. In addition, Gentoo is much more customizable and is quite comprehensive when it comes to compiling.

    3.    eliotime3000 said

      Well, in my case, I like the "archaic" form of partitioning that you mention better, so - personally - I prefer to install Old fashioned Slackware instead of getting bored with terminals.

      Now, this time I am studying graphic design, and happily I have my dual-boot with Windows to do my design work in case I need it, in addition to having my CloneZilla disk on hand in case I get a hard disk in a job better than the one I have now (the one I have now on my desktop PC has 80GB capacity and is SATA), so I have no major problems with Debian Jessie so far (Wheezy I have it on my Netbook).

  31.   Felipe said

    Hello TheLinuxNoob, I think you should have read the wiki before using Arch, since it is not a development system, you can consult the forum they will tell you the same. As the first comment tells you, you should use a virtual machine. Ubuntu does not seem to be the solution either, since you are using many PPAs, the interesting thing would be to know which system is where the software that you develop works. Given that if you need a lot of PPAs for ubuntu then on debian and centos it shouldn't even work. You are also going to deny not having the latest (table / drivers / xorg) if you play games or watch videos.
    What if it seems that they make you "work" with many technologies, nodejs, java, php, ruby, python, nosql, I do not know if you would have used one of these really, there you should perfect yourself in some more than scratch the surface of all.

    Greetings. Luck.

  32.   OverJT said

    «They have the NPM packages in a simple sudo npm install -g, I have had to modify the installation script a couple of times already because for Arch Linux, python refers to Python 3, and for the rest of the world it is refers to Python 2. »

    I use antergos and I have the same problem but I solve it like this:

    PYTHON = python2 npm install -g
    o
    env PYTHON = python2 npm install -g

    1.    elav said

      “They have the NPM packages in a simple sudo npm install -g, I have had to modify the installation script a couple of times already because for Arch Linux, python refers to Python 3, and for the rest of the world it is refers to Python 2. "

      But that's how it should be, I think. It is not that all applications have to update from today to tomorrow, change their API and that every developer goes crazy, but Python 3 has been on the market a long time ago as a stable product and many still cling to using Python 2. Since My point of view, that represents tremendous delay.

    2.    anonymous said

      Development, but not exactly web ... here gentoo does not have those problems, you can have all the pythones and rubies and others installed and select the one you like the most with a single command.

      $ select python list
      Available Python interpreters:
      [1] python2.7
      [2] python3.3 *
      [3] python3.4

      $ eselect ruby ​​list
      Available Ruby profiles:
      [1] ruby19 (with Rubygems)
      [2] ruby20 (with Rubygems) *
      [3] ruby21 (with Rubygems)
      [4] ruby22 (with Rubygems)

  33.   pepper said

    Using arch and configuring it is a job in itself, and rolling releases are for testing, bugging and not working.

    1.    elav said

      I'm sorry to disagree ... I've been working continuously with Archlinux / Antergos for more than 2 years and nothing has limited me to this day.

      1.    Master of the Wind said

        That nothing has happened to you does not mean that it is for the best.

      2.    elav said

        Where in my comment did I say it was the best?

      3.    eliotime3000 said

        @Master_of_the_Wind:

        That depends on the experience of each one, since normally I have been focused on what is optimization for the best performance and resource consumption, while @elav and @ KZKG ^ Gaara, are precisely dedicated sysadmins, so managing a distro Rolling-release on your personal PCs is a breeze (more tedious would be to implement Arch as a server).

        Oh, and don't forget that video game developers for arcade machines also manage to configure their custom distro to be as compatible as possible with the hardware for which it was intended (not for pleasure the news about the drivers about ATI / AMD and NVIDIA also concern linuxers).

    2.    eliotime3000 said

      Weird, because with Debian Jessie in its testing stage, the only problem I had was poor package management due to a layer 8 error. The rest, I have done great.

  34.   Jairo said

    I've never used Arch because I don't want to spend time setting everything up. But having the system updated is priceless. At least for me. I decided to use Chakra because I am a KDE fan and everything is perfect. The equipment is not up to date like Arch but not out of date like Ubuntu or Debian. In fact, before Chakra I had Debian wheezy and at first I was happy but after a couple of months I couldn't install programs because the system was very old and I didn't install any more or less current software. In fact in Debian I had more system crashes than I have had in Chakra and Ubuntu not to mention.

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      I have tried Arch, and it is the KISS distro with the most documentation in Spanish that I have found. And as if that weren't enough, it even has tutorials that are very easy to understand and run so that anyone can make an effort and a sysadmin feels comfortable if it is a versionitic.

      However, the real challenge goes to those new to Gentoo, for whom there is little or no information in Spanish, and in the case of Gentoo, they require at least weekends if you are a beginner.

      Now, in my case, I have Debian Wheezy on my laptop because I usually use it in cases of occasional work (typing, disk burning, network tests, web page management) and the programs that did not fit in Wheezy I install it on my Desktop PC with Debian Jessie, which has hardware 100% compatible with the free drivers and I don't have so many muddles with it, besides better hardware. Now that Jessie has stabilized, I will wait a few more weeks for Iceweasel to become available for Debian Jessie, so that I can dist-upgrade it.

      Regarding Ubuntu, the package management does not stick at all (it is slower than Debian's), and the kernel has more patches than the Debian kernel.

  35.   chupy35 said

    I use xampp for that

  36.   shattered said

    I have also returned to Xubuntu, after spending about a month in previous versions. A program that I use "Visual Your Mind" had no way of entering the Spanish keyboard language. Tired of fighting with one and the other distro I returned to Xubuntu. I would have returned to Debian, but Parole gives an error and I can't be without Parole.

  37.   Water carrier said

    I understand the desire to have it easy. I try Live versions of distros for beginners and seeing a distro like LXLE that has everything easy and light (Lubuntu nice and smart) or Voyager (Xubuntu super nice and great for French speakers) that takes XFCE to another aesthetic level, I think maybe I should change . . . . But . . .
    I started with Mint, switched to Mageia and currently use Manjaro on 2 out of 3 computers. I still believe that, for those who want a slightly simpler world, Mageia strikes a balance between the world of outdated Mintuntu programs and the world of the latest with Arch. With Manjaro I pay more attention to updates, but it is worth it for me . I have never lacked anything with Manjaro (and the AUR), but just over the weekend I found a situation where there was no Pidgin plugin that I have been using for months in Manjaro or in the Mageia 'repository' or a ready-to-use rpm package install.
    Well, at the end of the day each of us has a distro that is the best for him or her. . . Well, of course, I have to confess that I am one of the few who use and defend Enlightenment. 🙂

    1.    rocholc said

      I'm with you, I have installed on my Mageia 4 netbook and it works great, super stable, with well-tested software. From what I have tried on Linux, it is the best. I definitely stay with Mageia, and version 5 is ready to be released and it looks very good.

      I encourage you to try it.

  38.   aley said

    What I do at the most they do is virtualization using virtualbox, vmware player to which at the moment I am a lot with KVM / QEMU + libvirt since that thing has an impressive power. You can aser the gpu pass or the plate that you need. So you have the base ubuntu to download torren, surf the internet and if you need to play it a good win here all the bullshit that eats resources to pepe you put the game pass the gpu and chocho 95% or 96% you go from power to what was in normal windos. to one that surely with time will end up walking as if it would be installed as a base. You do not want to play, close the vm and voila, you want to work with a certain application in the path of your work vm and all chocho you have all the power for that vm the good thing about the distro relates that having the newer kernel improves a lot with the vm issue Give KVM / QEMU and I would be happy to add a tutorial on it for many people who do not know how to put into practice KVM / QEMU + libvirt since there is a lot of information in English so by the way what we know something we also learn a little more.
    there is has a show of potency.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17qxEpn4EGs&feature=youtu.be

    1.    cr0t0 said

      You have to have a nice mother for the PCI Pass-Through. Now I don't know, 1 year ago when I followed the subject it was not very clear and they were very specific mothers

      1.    aley said

        You simply need a motherboard that has VT-d / AMD-Vi support, it would be the technology to pass the pci and components of both intel and amd the ddr3 generation plate already has it since the new amd fx or intel i 3 processors 5 7 bring it. I think that even the apu of amd bring that their motherboard and here you have in my channel how it worked for me with a hd 5670 512mb, the only drama that I had was in how the pile of threads and core to the vm that I had Optimize it a little more but you can play bf3 at 45 fps to one that does not record when that game was tested. but if we start in Spanish to give better information both in intel like amd we will surely improve a lot the thing is in English in archilinux that there is a topic in its 600 page cover dealing with this in English.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU_vywzfkX8

    2.    waco said

      Very good this kvm / qemu we completely avoid the dual boot and no more reboots ..

  39.   joel said

    Well, I am precisely studying going from Linux Mint to Manjaro so as not to have to do a new installation every 2 or 3 years.

  40.   minijo said

    Well, it seems fine to me, I work on two operating systems on the same machine, although the hardest thing about this is that you have to restart every time you want something from one of the two operating systems. About virtual machines, I thought about using them but for a long time it seems like a big problem, although there are programs that let you go from windows to an ubuntu system (which I have used and that has not worked for me). But like all problems, you have to get used to it.

    1.    eliotime3000 said

      I agree with you 100%. Also, I'm using Debian with Windows, and I don't have many problems.

  41.   Vladimir Paulino said

    It is the final destiny of all who lack time. A long time ago I read a short comment from someone on MuyLinux that said something like "I like Arch, but I don't have time to be maintaining it." Nobody can say that they do not have problems with Arch, not because it is problematic, but because, from time to time, any update brings with it some small / great difficulty, regarding which it is necessary to document in the forums how to solve it. The Ubuntu concept for Linux productivity is the best in my opinion. Too bad Mark has branched out so much (Ubuntu one, Ubuntu Music Store, Web Apps, Phone / Tablet) and neglected the desktop experience, which is only getting basic support lately (while working on Unity 8). Even so, for those who are very busy, Ubuntu is the best there is.

  42.   Luis Alberto Mayta said

    I am a web developer and at work I use Archlinux and at home OS X, and to avoid problems I use Vagrant + Puppet (yes I know, I have to use Ansible but Puppet serves me separately and created several modules that I use frequently) but I am switching to Docker: p

  43.   mykeura said

    Switching from Arch Linux to Ubuntu if it's a big change (I'm not saying it's bad though).

    I think you may have opted for other options that are easier and faster to install such as: Chakra Linux, Antergos and Manjaro.

    But hey, the great thing about the GNU / Linux world is that there are a lot of options, as well as types of users. So if now you feel comfortable in Ubuntu, good for you 🙂

    1.    mykeura said

      I return to give some feedback to my comment.

      After reading TheLinuxNoob article. It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to test how far Ubuntu had come. Well, I quit this distro when I switched to the Unity desktop.

      The first thing I did was install Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS on an extra hard drive that I had. And I must say that I was amazed at how well everything works.

      I am very glad to see that Unity runs smoothly. And apart from that, using two monitors is no problem.

      Apart from that, I was able to install all the programs that I usually use. And so far the system is going quite well.

      To be honest, I am very comfortable using Linux Mint with KDE. So I don't think my main OS will change. However, after trying Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS for a couple of days. I must say that this distribution also goes, that I decided to leave it installed on my computer. As an alternative operating system.