1. Arch linux anyone? Distro choices blah blah.

[Federico Flego]

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Subject:
> Re: 1. Arch linux anyone? Distro choices blah blah.
> From:
> dom at latter.org
> Date:
> Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:38:50 +0100
> To:
> Cambridge LUG <clug at cambridge-lug.org>
> 
> To:
> Cambridge LUG <clug at cambridge-lug.org>
> 
> 
> Federico Flego wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
>> Hope it helps somehow...
> 
> Yes, in that at least one person I "know" is actually using Arch!
> 
> There's a lot to be said for "add what you need" - I've flirted with
> Gentoo in the past but then of course you end up obsessed with optimising
> everything to the nth degree instead of getting on with actually *using*
> the system.
> 
> I may give Arch a go but the worry is that with non-generic hardware (in
> other words a laptop) I'd end up spending too much time trying to get
> things working that with a well-known distro like Ubuntu, well, at least
> you can search the forums and find someone else that has been there 
> already.
> 

Yes, I know, 'what you need' is very relative!
I've used slackware, gentoo, red-hat, suse, and know I'm happy with arch!
Personally I'm strongly biased toward fast, light and simple.
The cons are sometimes you need to spend time to 'know' your system a 
little bit more... Therefore special effects are banned :) and I want my 
hardware to last 10 years, not 3 just because each time a new OS is on 
the market, it requires 10 times more power just to handle new special 
effects. That's my view, of course... beauty it's a value and someone 
may need it on her/his computer :)

Regarding the hardware compatibility, most of  the drivers are in the 
kernel, especially for old machines. Although not all distributions are 
sync with the latest kernel version, you probably don't need it. The 
problem, maybe, is whether your hardware (although existing for many 
years) has yet been supported. For this you can have a look at:

http://www.linux-laptop.net/
http://www.linux.org/hardware/laptop.html

Cheers,

Ico.