• • • • • • •
 • Home Page, Headlines
 • DW Weekly, Comments
 • Packages, Package Management
 • Glossary, FAQ, Mobile Site 		 • Search, Sitemap
 • Major Distributions
 • Submit Distribution
 • Upcoming Releases
  • About DistroWatch
 • Page Hit Ranking
 • Advertise
 • Torrent Downloads

Linux Foundation Training
Arch Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Arch Linux

Arch Linux


Last Update: 2025-01-23 02:20 UTC

Arch Linux is an independently developed, x86_64-optimised Linux distribution targeted at competent Linux users. It uses 'pacman', its home-grown package manager, to provide updates to the latest software applications with full dependency tracking. Operating on a rolling release system, Arch can be installed from a CD image or via an FTP server. The default install provides a solid base that enables users to create a custom installation. In addition, the Arch Build System (ABS) provides a way to easily build new packages, modify the configuration of stock packages, and share these packages with other users via the Arch Linux user repository.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 64 (160), 6 months: 65 (158), 3 months: 68 (166), 4 weeks: 68 (176), 1 week: 69 (173)

Average visitor rating: 9.22/10 from 232 review(s).

Arch Linux Summary
Distribution Arch Linux
Home Page http://www.archlinux.org/
Mailing Lists https://lists.archlinux.org/listinfo/
User Forums http://bbs.archlinux.org/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation http://wiki.archlinux.org/
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors http://www.archlinux.org/download/ • DistroWatch Torrent Archive
Bug Tracker http://bugs.archlinux.org/
Related Websites Planet Arch • Arch Linux ARM • Wikipedia • Arch Brazil • Arch Chile • Arch Denmark • Arch France • Arch Germany • Arch Hungary • Arch Italy • Arch Russia • Arch Spain • Arch Turkey
Reviews 2024: MichlFranken (German)
2023: DistroWatch
2019: Ordinatechnic
2016: Keith Curtis
2015: DistroWatch • Keith Curtis • LWN
2011: Guillermo Garron
2010: ITworld • LWN
2009: It's A Binary World • DistroWatch • Adventures in Open Source • Polishlinux
2008: Guia do PC (Portuguese) • DistroWatch • OStatic • Blogspot • Wordpress
2007: Blogspot
0.8: Polishlinux • Pro-Linux (German) • Skatox (Spanish) • Tuxmachines
0.7: USALUG • Wordpress • OSNews • LinMagazine (Hebrew) • Linux Magazine (PDF) • LinuxUser (German) • ABC Linuxu (Czech) • OSNews • LWN • OSNews
0.5: OSNews • OSNews
0.3: OSNews
Where To Donate, Buy or Try

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2012-11-02: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2012.11.01
 • 2012-10-07: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2012.10.06
 • 2012-09-08: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2012.09.07
 • 2012-08-05: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2012.08.04
 • 2012-07-22: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2012.07.15
 • 2011-08-20: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2011.08.19
 • 2010-05-18: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2010.05
 • 2009-08-09: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2009.08
 • 2009-02-17: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2009.02
 • 2008-06-24: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2008.06
 • 2008-04-16: Development Release: Arch Linux 2008.04 RC
 • 2007-10-07: Distribution Release: Arch Linux 2007.08-2
 • More Arch releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2024-11-18 Arch system installer gets new text-based menu system
 • 2024-05-22 Arch community discusses mirror requirements
 • 2023-04-11 Arch powers the PINE64 PineTab-V
 • 2023-02-13 Arch Linux advises manual updating of base-devel
 • 2022-11-14 Unity desktop ported to Arch Linux
 • 2022-10-05 Arch users report Intel video driver bug in recent kernels
 • 2022-09-23 Arch drops Python 2 packages
 • 2021-01-05 Arch making progress toward reproducible builds
 • 2020-11-01 Arch offers install media accessibility options
 • 2020-10-21 Linux 5.9 is incompatible with NVIDIA driver
 • More Arch headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
TUXEDO
TUXEDO Computers

TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!

Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.

Star Labs

Star Labs Systems | Laptops designed for Linux

Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.

Advertisement


Feature current 2011.08.19 2010.05 2009.08 2009.02 2008.06
overlord		 2007.08
dontpanic		 0.8
voodoo		 0.7
wombat		 0.6
widget		 0.5
nova		 0.4
dragon		 0.3
firefly		 0.2
vega		 0.1
homer		 Feature
Release Date 2025-01-23 2011-08-19 2010-05-17 2009-08-09 2009-02-17 2008-06-24 2007-08-05 2007-04-01 2005-01-24 2004-03-01 2003-07-21 2002-12-18 2002-08-07 2002-04-17 2002-03-11 Release Date
End Of Life                               End Of Life
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Price (US$)
Image Size (MB)   1-659                           Image Size (MB)
Free Download PKG ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO Free Download
Installation Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Installation
Default Desktop                               Default Desktop
Package Management Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Pacman Package Management
Release Model Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Release Model
Office Suite GOffice, Calligra, LibreOffice -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- KOffice KOffice KOffice     Office Suite
Processor Architecture x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686, x86_64 i686 i686 i686 i686 i686 i686 i686 Processor Architecture
Init Software systemd SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV SysV Init Software
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext3, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext3, ReiserFS ext3, ReiserFS ext3, ReiserFS ext3, ReiserFS ext3, ReiserFS Journaled File Systems
Multilingual                               Multilingual
Asian Language Support                               Asian Language Support
Full Package List current 2011.08.19 2010.05 2009.08 2009.02 2008.06 2007.08 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 Full Package List

Full Package List:   Arch Linux 2008.06
  Number of packages: 183 (download as TXT)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  •  acl-2.2.47-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  atl2-2.0.4-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  attr-2.4.41-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  autoconf-2.62-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  automake-1.10.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  b43-fwcutter-011-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bash-3.2.033-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bcm43xx-fwcutter-006-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bin86-0.16.17-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  binutils-2.18-8-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bison-2.3-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bridge-utils-1.2-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  bzip2-1.0.5-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ca-certificates-20080514-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  capi4k-utils-050718-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  core.db.tar.gz
  •  core.db.tar.gz.old
  •  core.db.tar.gz.orig
  •  core.files.tar.gz
  •  core.files.tar.gz.old
  •  coreutils-6.12-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  cpio-2.9-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  cracklib-2.8.10-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  cryptsetup-1.0.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  csup-20060318-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  current.db.tar.gz
  •  dash-0.5.4-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  db-4.6.21-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dcron-3.2-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  device-mapper-1.02.24-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dhcpcd-3.2.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dialog-1.1_20080316-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  diffutils-2.8.1-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dmapi-2.2.8-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dmraid-1.0.0.rc14-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dnsutils-9.4.2-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  dosfstools-2.11-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  e2fsprogs-1.40.8-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ed-0.9-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  eventlog-0.2.5-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  fakeroot-1.9.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  file-4.24-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  filesystem-2008.06-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  findutils-4.4.0-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  flex-2.5.33-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  fuse-2.7.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gawk-3.1.6-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gcc-4.3.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gcc-libs-4.3.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gdbm-1.8.3-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gen-init-cpio-2.6.17-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gettext-0.17-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  glib2-2.16.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  glibc-2.8-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gmp-4.2.2-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gpm-1.20.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  grep-2.5.3-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  groff-1.19.2-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  grub-0.97-12-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  gzip-1.3.12-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  hdparm-8.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  heimdal-1.0.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  hwdetect-0.9-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ifenslave-1.1.0-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  initscripts-2008.05-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  iproute-2.6.24_rc7-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  iptables-1.4.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  iputils-20070202-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ipw2100-fw-1.3-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ipw2200-fw-3.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ipw3945-1.2.2-10-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ipw3945d-1.7.22-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ipw3945-ucode-1.14.2-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  isdn4k-utils-3.2p1-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  iwlwifi-3945-ucode-2.14.1.5-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  iwlwifi-4965-ucode-4.44.1.20-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  jfsutils-1.1.12-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  kbd-1.14.1.20080309-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  kernel26-2.6.25.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  kernel-headers-2.6.25.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  klibc-1.5-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  klibc-extras-2.4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  klibc-kbd-1.15.20080312-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  klibc-module-init-tools-3.2.2-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  klibc-udev-116-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  lastsync
  •  less-418-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libarchive-2.4.17-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libdownload-1.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libelf-0.8.10-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libevent-1.3e-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libgcrypt-1.4.0-1.1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libgpg-error-1.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libldap-2.3.40-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libpcap-0.9.8-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libsasl-2.1.22-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libtool-2.2.4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  libusb-0.1.12-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  licenses-2.4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  lilo-22.8-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  links-2.1pre36-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  linux-atm-2.4.1-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  logrotate-3.7.5-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  lvm2-2.02.36-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  lzo2-2.02-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  m4-1.4.11-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  madwifi-0.9.4.3382-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  madwifi-utils-0.9.4.3382-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  mailx-8.1.1-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  make-3.81-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  man-1.6f-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  man-pages-3.00-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  mdadm-2.6.4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  mkinitcpio-0.5.19-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  mlocate-0.20-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  module-init-tools-3.2.2-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  mpfr-2.3.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  nano-2.0.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ncurses-5.6-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ndiswrapper-1.52-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ndiswrapper-utils-1.52-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  netcfg-2.0.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  netkit-telnet-0.17-7-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  net-tools-1.60-13-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  nfsidmap-0.20-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  nfs-utils-1.1.0-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ntfs-3g-1.2531-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ntfsprogs-2.0.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  openssh-5.0p1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  openssl-0.9.8h-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  openswan-2.4.11-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  openvpn-2.0.9-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  packages.txt
  •  pacman-3.1.4-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pam-1.0.1-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  patch-2.5.9-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pciutils-2.2.8-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pcmciautils-014-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pcre-7.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  perl-5.10.0-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pkgconfig-0.23-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  popt-1.10.6-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  portmap-6.0-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  ppp-2.4.4-6-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  pptpclient-1.7.1-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  procinfo-19-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  procps-3.2.7-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  psmisc-22.6-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  readline-5.2-7-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  reiserfsprogs-3.6.20-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  rp-pppoe-3.8-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  rt2500-1.1.0_B4-23-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  rt2x00-rt61-fw-1.2-2.pkg.tar.gz
  •  rt2x00-rt71w-fw-1.8-2.pkg.tar.gz
  •  run-parts-2.28.6-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  sdparm-1.02-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  sed-4.1.5-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  shadow-4.0.18.2-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  sudo-1.6.9p12-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  sysfsutils-2.1.0-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  syslog-ng-2.0.9-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  sysvinit-2.86-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  tar-1.20-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  tcp_wrappers-7.6-8-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  texinfo-4.12-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  tiacx-20080210-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  tiacx-firmware-2-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  tzdata-2008c-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  udev-119-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  usbutils-0.73-5-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  util-linux-ng-2.13.0.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  vi-7.1.267-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  vpnc-0.5.1-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  wget-1.11.3-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  which-2.19-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  wireless_tools-29-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  wlan-ng26-0.2.8-17-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  wlan-ng26-utils-0.2.8-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  wpa_supplicant-0.5.10-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  xfsprogs-2.9.7-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  xinetd-2.3.14-3-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  zd1211-firmware-1.4-2-i686.pkg.tar.gz
  •  zlib-1.2.3-4-i686.pkg.tar.gz


Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Arch Linux

Average rating
9.2
from 232 review(s)
Please selecting a rating in the range of 1-10.
Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters.


What are your thoughts on Arch Linux?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Your review (minimum 250 words):



Past reviews - sort by:

Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-01-15
Votes: 5


 Starting in the mid-90s, I bought my first Linux distribution with manual, the S.u.S.E. Linux from Germany. Since that time, I have used a number of Linux distributions on various computers and servers, such as CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Kali Linux, Free BSD, Knoppix, and a few embedded devices have also been operated with Debian in particular. In the meantime, mainly Debian and Free BSD have remained for servers and Arch Linux for desktops and backup servers, which I have probably been using privately for a good 10 years. Experiments with different RAIDs and the btrfs file system were unstable at first, but have been running fine for some time now. I can recommend Arch to anyone who knows a little about the subject and maintains their computer well. I am highly satisfied with Arch and with the AUR user repository always at the development stage. For Linux newcomers, however, I would advise against Arch. - But Arch Linux is great for freaks like me.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 7
Date: 2025-01-09
Votes: 2


 I understand the point of using Arch it is highly flexible and customizable you can make it how you desire without bloat, hence I do not hate it. But there is a reason why it is ranked this low for me, simply the system is the most fragile, even though you can do whatever to your system it is a double edged sword (i.e you can break it easily more on accident). I know the Arch wiki exists and thanks to it I have solved many issues but simply the distro isn't for me, I know why you may want to daily drive it the AUR is awesome tbh. But I am sorry Arch, NixOS is more for me.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2024-12-24
Votes: 9


 Love Arch! Its package manager is fast, and it offers modern packages. It's a fun distro for sure, though the usual caveats like upstream bugs and occasional instability apply. Pacman is a very fast package manager – the fastest I've tried. The installation isn't that difficult once you understand how it works, and you can probably learn it in a few days. I wouldn't recommend the archinstall script because it's prone to bugs and detracts from the true Arch experience. Also, if you select the btrfs option within the script, it sets up the filesystem incorrectly without subvolumes, leaving you with more work later. Stick to the old manual installation because it's likely faster than using the buggy archinstall script.


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 232 reader reviews of Arch Linux...

Extended Lifecycle Support for CentOS 7 | TuxCare




Copyright © 2001 - 2025 Atea Ataroa Limited. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Privacy policy. Change privacy settings.
DistroWatch.com is hosted at Copenhagen.

Contact, corrections and suggestions: Jesse Smith

Tips: bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx
lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le
PayPal.me/distrow • Patreon.com/distrowatch