ArcoLinux

Reader supplied reviews for ArcoLinux Average rating 8.5 from 99 review(s) What are your thoughts on ArcoLinux? 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: -- 23.07.0122.12.0221.11.0520.11.919.12.1718.12.7 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 23.07.01 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-09-01 Votes: 30 A follow-up from 3 posts below this one. The original build I did for the gamer lady is rock solid. I checked in on her and the system was up to date - she did it herself. I asked her how/why and she said "Oh a red symbol appeared so I clicked on it and it showed updates. One took longer than the rest - why is that?". I explained about Nvidia updates and she was happy with that. I checked "dmesg" - pretty much silent after login/Wifi connect. This is quite unexpected given the errors and issues I saw on Ubuntu in the past. For my migration away from Windows, I am working with the latest release, (v 23.09.03) and it seems no different to what she is using, so the rolling updates definitely work. I am about half-way through - being very careful with my software choices. I've gone down a few rabbit holes and decided to rebuild from scratch a few times - not because it was broken, but because I am learning and testing and learning more. I've found a few packages that just do things better than the choices I had made for Windows. Pros: * Install just works - 3 different machines (hardware), same results. * ArcoLinux tools are very useful, helpful and just work * Arch is the (b)leading edge - I do like that * So many choices you can make, and I've made quite a few * When I am migrated, the machines will do things my way - I like that * There are videos - lots of them - all helpful... except the tiling stuff. * Fast * Community support is very good. * New hardware is supported earlier on Arch - or so it seems. Cons: * I've been down so many rabbit holes, but gee I've learned a lot about my computer usage and workflow and what works better for me. * Frequent updates - you don't have to, but there are advantages. It's like your mobile phone - if you don't update it, it still works, but, what are you missing... * So much to learn - once you start. You can choose not to learn, and just use it - that's also fine. It's not something that Windows encourages, unless you cruise forums etc. Arch is a great platform on which you can learn (a lot). * Not "company" supported. From what I have read lately, that's a actually a good thing. I am very glad that my friend sent me down this path. In a couple of weeks, my migration away from Windows will be complete. I am very happy with the progress and results. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 23.07.01 Rating: 6 Date: 2023-08-24 Votes: 0 Erik, the author or ArcoLinux, is a talented and respect Linux ecosystem contributor, giving us very good tutorials, Sardi icons, and tweaking tools. But I don't really understand the ArcoLinux' philosophy. It says: "learning, simplicity, and beauty" on the website and during the install, yet I found it unnecessarily complicated and not very beautiful (that's subjective). As for learning, I think it conflicts with simplicity. Mint is simple: install and play. Arch is learning, teaching you how your computer works, but it's far from being simple. Simplicity starts with choosing an iso: there are many "branches" (XS, XL, D, B), each having many variants (kernel, desktop environment, bloat, etc.) and it takes quite some efforts to sort everything out. Thankfully, the website is documented and Erik even made 2 videos explaining how to choose. I went for ArcoLinuxB Cinnamon. What I got is a sort of Endeavour/Manjaro (a themed, easy-to-install archlinux) with access to Arco's repository and ATT (Archlinux Tweaking Tool). I couldn't change the Cinnamon's background. Right-click on the desktop, change background, add /usr/share/backgrounds/whatever, but the browse list is always empty, as if Cinnamon can't read the image files. ATT didn't help either (I couldn't find an option to change the background there). Plymouth works but is not handled by ATT. In the end, the only thing ATT helped was to set a sddm theme, which is really 2 commands to issue on any arch distro anyway. I was also hoping to find plenty of wallpapers in Arco's repository but that's mainly what AUR already provides (granted, Arco added a few of their own, but most can be found on the web). In summary, a couple of AUR packages (arco-theme, pamac, and ATT) on any arch distro would do the same for me. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 23.07.01 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-08-19 Votes: 3 I was frustrated with CachyOS as the update created a bunch of problems I won't go into here as this is about ArcoLinux, but that caused me to try Arco & "am I happy?" You bet!!! It installed rather easily off a ventoy usb after downloading onto another distro & doing the checking. I am running it off another Distro as an external drive. I have 17 external drives running off the same one. Its a great way to try out the distros *all are different, which including the main one means 18 in all off one machine". I like so many things about Arco. I just installed it 2 days ago. Normally I would wait before giving feedback, but this is such an easy to use distro (so far). All the updates went through & the usual software I install to protect & do my main surfing. I haven't put games on yet but can give feedback in the future about that later. I like that other repositories can be added. I have garuda & enjoy firedragon so it was great I got that working on Arco. As far as cons...so far, I haven't any. 2 days, what do you expect...lol! Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 99 reader reviews of ArcoLinux...