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My thoughts on Artix

Let me preface this entire post by saying that I am very grateful to all of the people who have contributed to making this distribution. I mostly love it, and I think it's currently the best option for a non-sytemd linux distro that we have available.

I'm running s6. Everything works and it's every bit as smooth running as systemd. Scratch that, it runs way more smoothly because I don't have to keep turning off new "features" that interfere with how I run my system.

Before Artix I was in Arch for about five years. Previous to that I always ran FreeBSD, for about 15 years, which should say a lot about what I like. I've dabbled heavily in Linux From Scratch as well, even creating my own automated process and ports tree. But that was more a hobby, I prefer something packaged up nice for getting work done.

The only technical issue that I've had worth Artix was some issues getting Privoxy to run. The fact that there was only one technical issue says a lot. I'm amazed that the distro manages to maintain multiple init and supervision systems and have things work smooothly. Thank you for that, because I love s6 but it goes largely ignored by the mainstream.

Now here's my critique. I loved FreeBSD and Arch largely because they gave me the software as it came from upstream without any extra configuration or theming. I was surprised to see when I first installed that Artix fills /etc/skel with some default theming. I've been using pacman long enough previously that it was easy to find the packages that provide this and remove them, and then to delete the dotfiles out of my newly created home. But I would greatly prefer branded theming to be an optional feature and not the default behavior. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice. I just like to bring my own config.

I know that this has already been brought up because I searched the forum, but I hope that I'm doing so in a way that comes off a lot more diplomatically. The thread I saw from before was toxic, and I don't want to be part of anything like that. That said I think it's a valid criticism and I wanted to throw it out there.

Re: My thoughts on Artix

Reply #1 –
The easiest way to avoid the branding and such is to just use the base iso for installation. I guess perhaps an option could be worked into the graphical installers somehow.

Re: My thoughts on Artix

Reply #2 –
Well, as I said, I'm not new to pacman so it was a simple enough fix. But good points.

The reason I didn't go with the base installer is actually this was the first time I've installed on x86_64 using efi boot. Sounds crazy I know, but up until now I've always scraped by using bios mode. Anyway, the guided installer made that easy. I suppose that I've reached a point where I just want it done a little easier, too. I used to fiddle a lot more.

Re: My thoughts on Artix

Reply #3 –
Quote from: jeang3nie – on
Well, as I said, I'm not new to pacman so it was a simple enough fix. But good points.

The reason I didn't go with the base installer is actually this was the first time I've installed on x86_64 using efi boot. Sounds crazy I know, but up until now I've always scraped by using bios mode. Anyway, the guided installer made that easy. I suppose that I've reached a point where I just want it done a little easier, too. I used to fiddle a lot more.
EFI isn't really that hard. How I do mine, though I dont have a windows install, is 1M partition for BIOS-type boot, atleast 100M /boot type EFI-system and rest are normal partition(s)
 

Re: My thoughts on Artix

Reply #4 –
I don't think Arch has a GUI iso, not an official one. Before Artix was Manjaro OpenRC and Arch OpenRC, it began as a small alternate repo of packages that allowed systemd to be replaced. So the GUI iso concept is more from the Manjaro heritage and userbase. Also it's useful having fully configured and functional iso's to use as a bootable live usb for various tasks sometimes, even though it's nice to configure things to your own spec when you do an install.