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Arch Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Arch Linux

Arch Linux


Last Update: 2025-06-18 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: 68 (167), 6 months: 70 (181), 3 months: 72 (179), 4 weeks: 69 (184), 1 week: 73 (165)

Average visitor rating: 9.18/10 from 260 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 ArchArch Linux ARMWikipediaArch BrazilArch ChileArch DenmarkArch FranceArch GermanyArch HungaryArch ItalyArch RussiaArch SpainArch Turkey
Reviews 2024: MichlFranken (German)
2023: DistroWatch
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2016: Keith Curtis
2015: DistroWatchKeith CurtisLWN
2011: Guillermo Garron
2010: ITworldLWN
2009: It's A Binary WorldDistroWatchAdventures in Open SourcePolishlinux
2008: Guia do PC (Portuguese) • DistroWatchOStaticBlogspotWordpress
2007: Blogspot
0.8: PolishlinuxPro-Linux (German) • Skatox (Spanish) • Tuxmachines
0.7: USALUGWordpressOSNewsLinMagazine (Hebrew) • Linux Magazine (PDF) • LinuxUser (German) • ABC Linuxu (Czech) • OSNewsLWNOSNews
0.5: OSNewsOSNews
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:
 • 2025-05-28 Arch Linux installer gains support for Btrfs snapshots
 • 2025-02-17 Arch Linux is retiring old repositories
 • 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
 • 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.
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Release Date 2025-06-18 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 260 review(s)
Please select a rating in the range of 1-10.
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-06-17
Votes: 6


It's time for a review after using it for a while. Clean Arch. It's a very interesting and positive experience using the distribution for “pros.” In fact, Arch isn't difficult, it just takes a little time to set up the system. And using the archinstall utility does everything for you, you just need to select the necessary items.

Nowadays, we live in an era of full access to information, AI, and documentation, so setting up a clean system is not a difficult challenge. As a result, what you put in is what you get. If a program requires additional packages, it will tell you the name of the package you need.

Yes, you have to work with the terminal, but I think that's really cool! There is a chance of breaking something, as always, but no one is immune to that.

Updates work well, I don't have any problems getting the latest versions of packages.

A good recommendation is to read a little about how pacman works.

My personal experience is this: games work great, no driver issues, positive interaction with KDE, etc.

Games, browsing, working with text documents, coding, multimedia... Everything works well. It's also important to install AUR. And you'll be happy.

That's it. Bye.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 9
Date: 2025-06-03
Votes: 10


Arch is great if you are relatively proficient in Linux and know exactly what you do. If you know every package you use, if you like to configure and control every bit of your system, down to configuring custom boot loader manually, then Arch is for you. Use it if you customise Linux to the point, when pre-configured installation would just get in your way.

Arch Wiki is a great resource as well, and not only for arch users, but for learning desktop Linux in general.

Also AUR is neat, it has practically everything.

I have been using it for one year, daily driving it for every possible desktop and home server task, it never failed me.
Over years, Arch got more reliable, and critical packages nowadays are tested before reaching stable repositories, so your system won't break after update.

If you don't know perfectly what you need, and don't want to spend some time learning on Arch Wiki, if you want things just to work out of the box, then don't install Arch, because you won't like it. After minimal installation, Arch is super bare bone, you don't even have networking automatically configured, you don't have sudo, man, and some other utilities you'd expect to universally be installed in every other distribution. This is something you should keep in mind.

There are few downsides for me.
The first one, logging on disk is enabled by default. Arch doesn't do much on its own by default, but why it decides to write a lot of logs on my disk, I have no idea, especially in the age of SSD, when finite number of writing cycles matters. I would like to see them disabled, and coredumps disabled as well. I also wish watchdog was disabled.
The second one, enabling AUR access requires some manual work, that might be avoided if yay was in main repos. I understand that it might be done intentionally to filter out people that have no idea what they are doing, but it requires no effort, except reading an article on Arch Wiki, that you will do anyway over and over if you use Arch.

Regarding newcomers trying Arch, I have experience in using it as an inexperienced user. The first time I tried it, I had very little Linux desktop experience, I didn't like it, because of how much stuff I should do myself, and how much learning I should do as well. But after two years of using other distribution (and learning a lot of stuff), I got bored, tried Arch again, and it came together well. Before installing Arch, I read installation guide, made decisions about partitioning, bootloader, and some other crucial packages to ensure its basic functionality, and suddenly, it wasn't as hard as the first try. I was just fine. Now I think if I reinstall Arch manually from scratch, it won't take much more time, than other distro. And it will just work for me, as expected.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 6
Date: 2025-05-31
Votes: 0


It is a nice and simple distro. It is also lightweight and responsive unless you choose otherwise. The problem is that you must keep upgrading packages. And bleeding edge means bugs. Even if everything run smoothly it is very annoying and time consuming.

I use my operating system to serve me and not to feel like a beta tester. With Arch you can learn a thing or two about Linux but if you want more knowledge it is better to choose a non rolling release operating system and spend your time writing code instead of using Pacman or compiling packages. It is way more productive.

If you also want to learn how to run a server Arch is probably the worst choice.

If Arch had an LTS, non rolling release edition i would probably use it.


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