ArchLinux (was gentoo)

[Chip33AZ at netscape.net]

I don't know who it is based on.  I know that Rubilinux (something like that) is based on Slackware and can be used for 486 and above (I haven't tried it).

ArchLinux is for i686 and above.  The distro uses pacman to maintain/install software.  It also handles dependencies, so to install mythtv, I would go pacman -S mythtv.  It will download and install what it needs.

The installation is text based, you will need to be familiar with Linux to install, but it is extremely quick.  After the installation you are left with nothing but the command line.  A quick pacman -Syu to update the software and then I download KDE or fluxbox.  The move to the new 2.6.13 kernel causes some issues since it switches to udev.  You have to edit grub for it to work.  When you upgrade, it tells you what to do.

Speedwise, it is incredible.  On that PII-300 I disabled hotplugging and loaded just the drivers I needed and it boots quickly.  

It takes a little work to get it running, but so far I'm happy with it.

Siri Amrit Kaur <tigerflag at tigerflag.com> wrote:

>On Thursday 27 October 2005 08:22 pm Jason Spatafore kindly wrote:
>> On Wednesday 26 October 2005 16:18, Chip33AZ at netscape.net wrote:
>> > Lately, I've been really impressed with ArchLinux.  The
>> > installation took 15 minutes on a slow PII300 and it runs
>> > extremely fast.  All of the software I use is in their pacman
>> > directory (MythTV, Mplayer with the plug-ins, etc).  I would
>> > highly recommend this.
>>
>> I'm curious...what is the base for this distro? I went to their
>> site and realized that all their packages were tgz files. So, I'm
>> guessing there's no package management? Also, it appears to be
>> geared towards the Pentium class of cpus. Is this an accurate
>> observation?
>
>From what I've gathered, it's based on Slackware with the
>Slackware/BSD-style init system. Then it uses a package management
>tool called Pacman that I hear is quite capable. It seems to have
>taken the best features from several distros.
>
>Siri Amrit
>---------------------------------------------------
>PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change  you mail settings:
>http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>

__________________________________________________________________
Switch to Netscape Internet Service.
As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register

Netscape. Just the Net You Need.

New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.
Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp