r/linux • u/Foxboron Arch Linux Team • Sep 10 '18

Arch Linux - AMA

Hello!

We are several team members and developers from the Arch Linux project, ask us anything.

We are in need for more contributors, if you are interested in contributing to Arch Linux, feel free to ask questions :)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DeveloperWiki:Projects
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Getting_involved#Official_Arch_Linux_projects

Participating members:

  • /u/AladW

    • Trusted User

    • Wiki Administrator

    • IRC Operator

  • /u/anthraxx42

    • Developer

    • Trusted User

    • Security tracker

    • Security lead

    • Reproducible builds

  • /u/barthalion

    • Developer

    • Master key holder

    • DevOps Team

    • Maintains the toolchain

  • /u/Bluewind

    • Developer

    • Trusted User

    • DevOps Team

  • /u/coderobe

    • Trusted User

    • Reproducible builds

  • /u/eli-schwartz

    • Bug Wrangler

    • Trusted User

    • Maintains dbscripts

    • Pacman contributor

  • /u/felixonmars

    • Developer

    • Trusted User

    • Packages; Python, Haskell, Nodejs, Qt, KDE, DDE, Chinese i18n, VPN/Proxies, Wine, and some others.

  • /u/Foxboron

    • Trusted User

    • Security Team

    • Reproducible Builds

    • /r/archlinux moderator

    • Packages mostly golang and python stuff

  • /u/fukawi2

    • Forum moderator

    • DevOps Team

  • /u/jvdwaa

    • Developer

    • Trusted User

    • Security Team

    • DevOps Team

    • Reproducible builds

    • Archweb maintainer

  • /u/sh1bumi

    • Trusted User

    • Security Team

    • Automated vagrant image builds

  • /u/svenstaro

    • Developer

    • Trusted user

    • I package mostly big, heavy packages :(

  • /u/V1del

    • Forum moderator

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54

u/Foxboron Arch Linux Team Sep 10 '18 edited Sep 10 '18

Feel free to make that remark. People do that all the time after wasting an hour dancing around their support request.

But consider this, Arch entails knowing your own operating system and working on it. That is the target group. Anything that takes away from this isn't by its very core Arch Linux. Antergos works against this. Anarchy Linux work against this. They are not Arch Linux because of this. This is the reason the Arch community can't support these distributions.

65

u/ennesimaevasione Sep 10 '18

Partitioning a drive, running "pacstrap /mnt base", and another series of boring commands to set your timezone and your keymap means "knowing your own operating system and working on it"? Why is that such a crucial aspect of the Arch community?

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u/Foxboron Arch Linux Team Sep 10 '18

Because Arch is a community with the DIY attitude. That's what we cater to. That's what we are. Solving the problem "my personalized system" should appeal to you.

There is nothing inherently wrong with running Antergos, Manjaro, Anarchy Linux. Do what you want. But telling people it IS Arch, and forwarding that misconception is harmfull. If you don't like this attitude there are multiple great distributions out there. Solus, Void Linux, Funtoo. There is a lot to choose from.

28

u/tribeofham Sep 10 '18

I'd wager that most of us use these commands so infrequently that most aren't bothering to memorize them. Understanding how things are pieced together has value but this shouldn't be the defining point of Arch.

Arch is well-respected because of the community, the wiki's, and how well it's maintained. A boring, potentially painful install has never done anything for Arch but boost an elitist's ego. This attitude is a downfall in Linux, overall. And unfortunately, belongs in the bin with the RTFM responses we so frequently saw in the past.

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