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Arch Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Arch Linux

Arch Linux

Last Update: 2019-08-20 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: 16 (582), 6 months: 15 (580), 3 months: 17 (585), 4 weeks: 16 (594), 1 week: 24 (555)

Average visitor rating: 9.35/10 from 309 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/ •
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 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

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases, 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:
 •2018-09-10 Arch team answers questions on Reddit
 •2018-07-10 AUR packages compromised
 •2017-11-08 Arch drops 32-bit x86
 •2017-01-24 Arch Linux phasing out 32-bit
 •2016-06-27 Updated screen may not reattach
 • More Arch headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view: Major packages only (52) All tracked packages (226)
  • 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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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 2019-08-20 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
9.3
from 309 review(s)
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-08-10
Votes: 27


 After using Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu for years, i am using now Arch for quite a long time, and am happy with it. The documentation on wiki is excellent, can be edited, there is a mailing list, a facebook group, and the motto is "be nice especially to beginners". The Arch people often know and use other distributions as well and focus on technical help.

The release cycle is rolling, and in rare cases something breaks. I made the best experience by installing two kernels, "linux" and "linux-lts", the long term support version. in case one breaks just boot the other. Also installing a package like "yay" to benefit from the Arch user repository helped.

Arch has nearly as much sofware packaged as Debian, and far more than all other distributions. The GUI can be chosen. if you like KDE put it. or Gnome, or Solus, Elementary, Xfce, Sway. If software does not work than there is usually a git package from source, so one is not bound to one version.

While i never arrived to package software for Debian based distros like Debian or Ubuntu, or one of the RedHat distros, i found it easy to do for Arch.



Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 6
Date: 2019-08-07
Votes: 0


 Granted it doesn't claim to be the most stable distro, I still can't bring myself to merit it a high rating. There are longstanding bugs involving GDM and libreoffice (as well as other, lesser uses app) which affect my system in a way that is simply unacceptable. GDM fails to login sometimes after resuming from sleep/suspension. Libreoffice force closes after editing menu items; it also has display issues. Most distros suffer from these bugs, though not all. Regardless, these are faults that should be remedied for a product aimed at public use.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: current
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-08-04
Votes: 19


 Finally switched my main system to Arch, amazing distro, so fast and more stable than I thought. Only regret, not switching earlier!


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See all 309 reader reviews of Arch Linux...

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