• • • • • • •
 • 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

Extended Lifecycle Support for CentOS 7 | TuxCare

Arch Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Arch Linux

Arch Linux


Last Update: 2023-10-03 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: 62 (170), 6 months: 64 (159), 3 months: 66 (158), 4 weeks: 68 (155), 1 week: 57 (158)

Average visitor rating: 9.23/10 from 180 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 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 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:
 • 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
 • 2020-04-23 Arch introduces package rebuilder
 • 2020-02-24 Arch elects new leader
 • 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.


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 2023-10-03 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 2009.02
  Number of packages: 160 (download as TXT)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  •  acl 2.2.47-1
  •  aif 2009.01.24-1
  •  archlinux-installer 2009.02-2
  •  attr 2.4.41-1
  •  bash 3.2.048-3
  •  binutils 2.19.1-1
  •  bzip2 1.0.5-3
  •  coreutils 6.12-1
  •  cpio 2.9-3
  •  cracklib 2.8.13-1
  •  cryptsetup 1.0.6-2
  •  dash 0.5.4-4
  •  db 4.7.25-2
  •  dbus-core 1.2.4-1
  •  dcron 3.2-3
  •  ddrescue 1.7-1
  •  device-mapper 1.02.30-1
  •  dhcpcd 4.0.10-1
  •  dialog 1.1_20080819-1
  •  diffutils 2.8.1-6
  •  dmapi 2.2.8-3
  •  dmraid 1.0.0.rc14-2
  •  dnsutils 9.5.0.P2-1
  •  dosfstools 3.0.1-1
  •  e2fsprogs 1.41.3-2
  •  elinks 0.11.5-1
  •  expat 2.0.1-2
  •  file 5.00-1
  •  filesystem 2009.01-1
  •  findutils 4.4.0-1
  •  fuse 2.7.4-1
  •  gawk 3.1.6-2
  •  gcc-libs 4.3.3-1
  •  gdbm 1.8.3-5
  •  gen-init-cpio 2.6.17-3
  •  gettext 0.17-2
  •  glibc 2.9-4
  •  gnu-netcat 0.7.1-2
  •  gnutls 2.6.3-1
  •  gpm 1.20.5-2
  •  grep 2.5.3-3
  •  groff 1.20.1-1
  •  grub-gfx 0.97-11
  •  gzip 1.3.12-4
  •  hdparm 9.6-1
  •  heimdal 1.2.1-3
  •  inetutils 1.6-3
  •  initscripts 2009.01-1
  •  intel-536ep 2.56.76.0-59
  •  intel-536ep-utils 2.56.76.0-28
  •  intel-537 2.60.80.0-59
  •  intel-537-utils 2.60.80.0-28
  •  iputils 20071127-2
  •  ipw2100-fw 1.3-2
  •  ipw2200-fw 3.0-2
  •  iwlwifi-3945-ucode 15.28.2.8-1
  •  iwlwifi-4965-ucode 228.57.2.23-1
  •  iwlwifi-5000-ucode 5.4.A.11-1
  •  jfsutils 1.1.13-1
  •  kbd 1.14.1.20080309-2
  •  kernel-headers 2.6.27.6-2
  •  kernel26 2.6.28.4-1
  •  klibc 1.5.15-1
  •  klibc-extras 2.5-2
  •  klibc-kbd 1.15.20080312-8
  •  klibc-module-init-tools 3.5-1
  •  klibc-udev 135-2
  •  less 418-1
  •  lftp 3.7.8-1
  •  libarchive 2.6.1-1
  •  libdownload 1.3-1
  •  libevent 1.4.8-2
  •  libgcrypt 1.4.3-2
  •  libgpg-error 1.6-1
  •  libidn 1.11-1
  •  libldap 2.3.43-3
  •  libpcap 1.0.0-1
  •  libsasl 2.1.22-7
  •  libtasn1 1.7-1
  •  libusb 0.1.12-3
  •  licenses 2.4-1
  •  lilo 22.8-2
  •  logrotate 3.7.7-3
  •  lshwd 1.1.3-5
  •  lua 5.1.4-2
  •  lvm2 2.02.44-1
  •  lzo2 2.02-3
  •  mailx 8.1.1-5
  •  man 1.6f-2
  •  man-pages 3.17-1
  •  mdadm 2.6.8-1
  •  memtest86+ 2.11-1
  •  mkinitcpio 0.5.23-1
  •  mlocate 0.21.1-1
  •  module-init-tools 3.5-1
  •  nano 2.0.9-1
  •  ncurses 5.7-2
  •  ndiswrapper 1.53-4
  •  ndiswrapper-utils 1.53-1
  •  net-tools 1.60-13
  •  nfs-utils 1.1.3-2
  •  nfsidmap 0.21-2
  •  nmap 4.76-3
  •  nspr 4.7.3-1
  •  ntfs-3g 2009.1.1-1
  •  ntfsprogs 2.0.0-2
  •  openssh 5.1p1-2
  •  openssl 0.9.8j-1
  •  openvpn 2.0.9-4
  •  pacman 3.2.2-1
  •  pacman-mirrorlist 20090108-1
  •  pam 1.0.3-1
  •  parted 1.8.8-2
  •  pciutils 3.0.3-1
  •  pcmciautils 015-2
  •  pcre 7.8-1
  •  perl 5.10.0-4
  •  popt 1.14-1
  •  portmap 6.0-2
  •  ppp 2.4.4-7
  •  pptpclient 1.7.2-1
  •  procinfo 19-3
  •  procps 3.2.7-5
  •  psmisc 22.6-2
  •  readline 5.2.013-2
  •  reiserfsprogs 3.6.21-1
  •  rp-pppoe 3.10-1
  •  rt2500 1.1.0_B4-26
  •  rt2x00-rt61-fw 1.2-3
  •  rt2x00-rt71w-fw 1.8-3
  •  sdparm 1.03-2
  •  sed 4.1.5-3
  •  shadow 4.1.2.1-2
  •  speedtouch 1.3.1-1
  •  spidermonkey 1.7.0-1
  •  sqlite3 3.6.10-1
  •  squashfs-tools 3.4-1
  •  sysfsutils 2.1.0-4
  •  syslog-ng 2.1.3-2
  •  sysvinit 2.86-4
  •  tar 1.21-1
  •  tcp_wrappers 7.6-8
  •  tcpdump 4.0.0-2
  •  texinfo 4.13a-3
  •  tiacx 20080210-8
  •  tiacx-firmware 2-1
  •  tzdata 2009a-1
  •  udev 135-1
  •  unionfs-utils 200611041820-1
  •  usbutils 0.73-5
  •  util-linux-ng 2.14-1
  •  vi 7.2.65-1
  •  wget 1.11.4-1
  •  which 2.20-1
  •  wireless_tools 29-2
  •  wlan-ng26-utils 0.2.9-1
  •  wpa_supplicant 0.5.11-1
  •  xfsprogs 2.10.2-1
  •  zd1211-firmware 1.4-2
  •  zlib 1.2.3.3-3


Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Arch Linux

Average rating
9.2
from 180 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: 9
Date: 2023-09-28
Votes: 2


 I've been using Arch on my main laptops for over three years. Its been a better experience than I had expected. Arch is fast, easy to use, if not install and has the AUR with its vast repository of software, that's hard to match. I've had to learn a lot about the command line, using Arch. Yes I've had to trouble shoot issues and not all of them, occasional black screen upon first starting the OS, have gone away, in spite of a lot of time spent on forums.

I do think Arch could do with an automated installer, for those who don't want to be running through things from the command line and I think people need to acknowledge there is maintenance and a few bugs attendant to Arch.

That said, these things are alright as there is a lot of upside too, particularly in terms of gaining independence and being able to set up your Arch OS, as you like as opposed to having a lot of unnecessary software installed by default and having to endure someone else's vision of what your OS should be.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-24
Votes: 6


 Arch is a simple distro that focuses on simplicity and freedom of choice by its users. Its great if you want to completely customize your linux experience.

It has great community which maintains the Arch Wiki that i think is the best knowledge base there is for this moment.

Also it has a amazing package system called AUR, which has a very large collection of software that you can install with ease, almost in 1 command and not having to sit on it for a long time as it would be with another distros.

However, lets talk about bad things arch has, which is not much.

1. It is very beginner un-friendly, i'd say beginner offensive. You'd need to have rather big linux knowledge to use it, let alone install it
2. It forces you to customize everything. Sometimes it would be much easier to let the OS take care of everything

I don't think that any of those 2 things are that bad. If you are a beginner, you will learn one way or another. And the second one is barely a problem, since if you'd want to just use the OS, there is a lot of software like ArchInstall that automates a lot for you. Hell, you can install an Arch-based distro like Manjaro that has all the good things that Arch has, but are beginner-friendly


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-09-13
Votes: 8


 Arch is a very beautiful distro where everything is for you and by you. You build up everything as per your need . The package management with help of AUR is vast and biggest. It is stable also if you know how to keep it. It is not bloated as you install only what you need. A good configuration will make it the best distro and best OS. I am using this OS for more than 2 years though in between switched to few different Arch based and Non Arch based but again came back to Arch as I feel I have the ultimate freedom only in Arch .


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 180 reader reviews of Arch Linux...

Copyright (C) 2001 - 2023 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: bc1qtede6f7adcce4kjpgx0e5j68wwgtdxrek2qvc4
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le
PayPal.me/distrow • Patreon.com/distrowatch