Arch Compared to Other Distributions - ArchWiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Arch_Compared_to_Other_Dist...

Arch Compared to Other Distributions

From ArchWiki

This page attempts to draw a comparison between Arch Linux and other popular
GNU/Linux distributions and UNIX-like operating systems. The summaries that Summary
follow are brief descriptions that may help a person decide if Arch Linux will suit A brief comparison of
their needs. Although reviews and descriptions can be useful, first-hand experience Arch Linux with other
is invariably the best way to compare distributions. popular GNU/Linux
distributions and BSDs.
Related
Contents Arch Linux
The Arch Way
1 Source-based
1.1 Gentoo Linux External links
1.2 Sorcerer/Lunar-Linux/Source Mage
DistroWatch.com
2 Minimalist
(http://distrowatch.com/)
2.1 LFS
2.2 CRUX
2.3 Slackware
3 General
3.1 Debian GNU/Linux
3.2 Fedora
3.3 Frugalware
4 Beginner-friendly
4.1 Ubuntu
4.2 Mandriva
4.3 openSUSE
4.4 PCLinuxOS
5 The *BSDs
5.1 FreeBSD
5.2 NetBSD
5.3 OpenBSD

Source-based
Source-based distros are highly portable, giving the advantage of controlling and compiling the entire OS and
applications for a particular machine architecture and usage scheme, with the disadvantage of the
time-consuming nature of source compilation. The Arch base and all packages are compiled for i686 and x86-64
architectures, offering a potential performance boost over i386/i486/i586 binary distros, with the added
advantage of expedient installation.

Gentoo Linux

Both Arch Linux and Gentoo Linux are rolling release systems, making packages available to the distribution a

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short time after they are released upstream. The Gentoo packages and base system are built directly from source
code according to user-specified 'USE flags'. Arch provides a ports-like system for building packages from
source, though the Arch base system is designed to be installed as pre-built i686/x86_64 binary. This generally
makes Arch quicker to build and update, and allows Gentoo to be more systemically customizable. Arch
supports i686 and x86_64 while Gentoo officially supports x86, ppc, sparc, alpha, amd64, arm, mips, hppa,
s390, sh, and itanium architectures. Because both the Gentoo and Arch installations only include a base system,
both are considered to be highly customizable. Gentoo users will generally feel quite comfortable with most
aspects of Arch.

Sorcerer/Lunar-Linux/Source Mage

Sorcerer/Lunar-Linux/Source Mage (SLS) are all source-based distros originally related to one another. SLS
distros use a rather simple set of script files to create package descriptions, and use a global configuration file to
configure the compilation process, much like the Arch Build System. The SLS tools do full dependency
checking, including handling optional features, package tracking, removal and upgrading. There are no binary
packages for any of the SLS family, although they all provide the ability to roll back to earlier installed packages
easily.

The installation process involves configuring a simple base system from the shell and ncurses menus, then
optionally recompiling the base system afterward. Like Arch, there is no default WM/DE/DM, and Xorg is not
included in the base installation. Several X server alternatives are available (X.Org 6.8 or 7, XFree86).

SLS has a very complicated history. Perhaps the best write-up about it can be found at the SourceMage wiki
(http://wiki.sourcemage.org/SourceMage/History) .

Minimalist
The minimalist distros are quite comparable to Arch, sharing several similarities. All are considered 'simple' from
a technical standpoint.

LFS

LFS, (or Linux From Scratch) exists simply as documentation. The book instructs the user on obtaining the
source code for a minimal base package set for a functional GNU/Linux system, and how to manually compile,
patch and configure it from scratch. LFS is as minimal as it gets, and offers an excellent and educational process
of building and customizing a base system. Arch provides these very same packages, plus a BSD-style init, a few
extra tools and the powerful pacman package manager as its base system, already compiled for i686/x86-64.
LFS provides no online repositories; sources are manually obtained, compiled and installed with make. (Several
manual methods of package management exist, and are mentioned in LFS Hints). Along with the minimal Arch
base system, the Arch community and developers provide and maintain many thousands of binary packages
installable via pacman as well as PKGBUILD build scripts for use with the Arch Build System. Arch also
includes the makepkg tool for expediently building or customizing .pkg.tar.xz packages, readily installable by
pacman. Judd Vinet built Arch from scratch, and then wrote pacman in C. Historically, Arch was sometimes
humorously described simply as "Linux, with a nice package manager."

CRUX

Arch is independently developed, was built from scratch and is not based on any other GNU/Linux distribution.
Before creating Arch, Judd Vinet admired and used CRUX; a minimalist distro created by Per Lidén. Originally

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inspired by ideas in common with CRUX, Arch was built from scratch, and pacman was then coded in C. The
two share some guiding principles: for instance, both are architecture-optimized, minimalist and
K.I.S.S.-oriented. Both ship with ports-like systems, use *BSD-style init systems and, like *BSD, both provide a
minimal base environment to build upon. Arch features pacman, which handles binary system package
management and works seamlessly with the Arch Build System. CRUX uses a community contributed system
called prt-get, which, in combination with its own ports system, handles dependency resolution, but builds all
packages from source (though the CRUX base installation is binary). Arch officially supports x86-64 and i686
only, whereas CRUX offers official i686, as well as community-developed x86-64, ppc and ppc64.

Arch uses a rolling-release system and features a large array of binary package repositories as well as the Arch
User Repository. CRUX provides a more slimmed-down officially supported ports system in addition to a
comparatively modest community repository.

Slackware

Slackware and Arch are quite similar in that both are simple distributions focused on elegance and minimalism.
Slackware is famous for its lack of branding and completely vanilla packages, from the kernel up. Arch typically
applies patching only to avoid severe breakage or to ensure packages will compile cleanly. Both use BSD-style
init scripts. Arch supplies a package management system in pacman which, unlike Slackware's standard tools,
offers automatic dependency resolution and allows for more automated system upgrades. Slackware users
typically prefer their method of manual dependency resolution, citing the level of system control it grants them,
as well as Slackware's excellent supply of pre-installed libraries and dependencies. Arch is a rolling-release
system. Slackware is seen as more conservative in its release cycle, preferring proven stable packages. Arch is
more 'bleeding-edge' in this respect. Arch Linux provides many thousands of binary packages within its official
repositories whereas Slackware official repositories are more modest. Arch offers the Arch Build System, an
actual ports-like system and also the AUR, a very large collection of PKGBUILDs contributed by users.
Slackware offers a similar, though slimmer system at slackbuilds.org (http://www.slackbuilds.org) which is a
semi-official repository of Slackbuilds, which are analogous to Arch PKGBUILDs. Slackware users will
generally be quite comfortable with most aspects of Arch.

General
These distros offer a broad range of advantages and strengths, and can be made to serve most operating system
uses.

Debian GNU/Linux

Debian is a much larger project and community and features stable, testing, and unstable branches, offering over
20,000 binary packages. Arch does not 'split' their packages into "-dev" and "-common" as Debian does,
therefore, Arch repositories will seem much smaller. Debian has a more vehement stance on free software. Arch
is more lenient when it comes to 'non-free' packages as defined by GNU. Debian's design approach focuses more
on stability and stringent testing. Arch is focused more on the philosophy of simplicity, minimalism, and offering
bleeding edge software. Arch packages are more current than Debian Stable and Testing, being more
comparable to the Debian Unstable branch. Both Debian and Arch offer well-regarded package management
systems. Arch is a rolling release, whereas Debian Stable is released with "frozen" packages. Debian is available
for many architectures, including alpha, arm, hppa, i386, x86_64, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, and
sparc, whereas Arch is i686 and x86_64 only. Arch provides more expedient support for building custom,
installable packages from outside sources, with a ports-like package build system. Debian does not offer a ports
system, relying instead on its huge binary repositories. The Arch installation system only offers a minimal base,

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transparently exposed during system configuration, whereas Debian's methods offer a more automatically
configured approach as well as several alternative methods of installation. Debian utilizes the SysVinit, whereas
Arch uses a simpler *BSD-style init. Arch keeps patching to a minimum, thus avoiding problems that upstream
are unable to review, whereas Debian patches its packages more liberally.

Fedora

Fedora is community developed, yet corporately backed by Red Hat, and has continually been one of the most
popular distributions to date. It is often presented as a bleeding edge testbed release system; Fedora packages
and projects migrate to RHEL and some eventually become adopted by other distributions. Arch too is generally
considered bleeding edge, although it is a rolling-release and does not serve as a testing branch for another
distribution. Fedora boasts a massive community, many pre-built packages and excellent support. Fedora
packages are RPMs, using the YUM package manager, and an official graphical package tool (Packagekit) is
also available. Arch uses pacman to manage simple tarball packages and does not officially support a graphical
frontend. Fedora refuses to include MP3 and other media support due to its dedication to include only free
software, though third party repositories are available for such packages. Arch is more lenient in its disposition
toward MP3 and free software, leaving the discernment to the user. Fedora offers both a graphical and a text
installer which provide a desktop environment including a very modest assortment of default packages to build
upon or customize. Arch provides an ncurses-based installer of a minimal base system only. Fedora has a
scheduled release cycle, but officially supports version upgrades. Arch is a rolling-release system. The Arch
project is geared more toward simplicity, lightweight elegance and empowering the user, whereas Fedora focuses
more on community development and systemic innovation. Arch features a ports system, whereas Fedora does
not. Both Arch and Fedora communities are strongly encouraged to contribute to project development. Fedora
has earned much community recognition for integration of SELinux, GCJ compiled packages (to remove the
need for Sun's JRE), and prolific upstream contribution.

Frugalware

Arch is text-based and command-line oriented. Frugalware has adopted Arch's pacman as its package manager,
but uses bzipped tarballs. In contrast, Arch uses xz compressed (lzma) tarballs, for the purpose of expedience of
installation. Frugalware doesn't support the JFS filesystem by default. Frugalware is no longer based on
Slackware but is rather a distro of its own, and is promoted as an i686 distro. Arch is a fundamentally different
system, being installed as a minimal base environment and expanded with pacman according to the user's
choices and needs. Frugalware is installed from a DVD, with default software choices and desktop environment
chosen for the user already. Frugalware has a scheduled release cycle. Again, Arch is more focused on
simplicity, minimalism, code-correctness and bleeding edge packages within a rolling-release model.

Beginner-friendly
Sometimes called "newbie" distros, the beginner-friendly distros share a lot of similarities, though Arch is quite
different from them. Arch may be a better choice if you want to learn about GNU/Linux by building up from a
very minimal base, as an installation of Arch installs very few packages in comparison. Specific differences
between distros are described below.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an immensely popular Debian-based distro commercially sponsored by Canonical Ltd., while Arch is
an independently developed system built from scratch. Both projects have very different goals and are targeted
at a different user base. Arch is designed for users who desire a do-it-yourself approach, whereas Ubuntu

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provides an autoconfigured system which is meant to be more of a distribution for 'all'. If you want to get up and
running quickly and not fiddle around with the guts of the system as much, Ubuntu is better suited. Arch is
presented as a much more minimalist design from the base installation onward, relying heavily on the user to
customize it to their own specific needs. In general, developers and tinkerers will probably like Arch better than
Ubuntu, though many Arch users have started on Ubuntu and eventually migrated to Arch. Ubuntu moves
between discrete releases every 6 months, whereas Arch is a rolling-release system. Arch offers a ports-like
package build system, the Arch Build System, while Ubuntu does not. The two communities differ in some ways
as well. The Arch community is much smaller and is strongly encouraged to be proactive; a large percentage
contribute to the distro. In contrast, the Ubuntu community is relatively large and can therefore tolerate a much
larger percentage of users who do not actively contribute to development, packaging, or repository maintenance.

Mandriva

Mandriva Linux (formerly Mandrake Linux) was created in 1998 with the goal of making GNU/Linux easy to
use for everyone. It is RPM-based and uses the urpmi package manager. Again, Arch takes a simpler approach,
being text-based and relying on more manual configuration and is aimed at intermediate to advanced users.

openSUSE

openSUSE is centered around the RPM package format and its well-regarded YaST2 gui-driven configuration
tool, which is a one-stop shop for most users' system configuration needs, including package management. Arch
does not offer such a facility as it goes against The Arch Way. openSUSE, therefore, is widely regarded as more
appropriate for less-experienced users, or those who want a more GUI-driven environment, auto-configuration
and expected functionality out of the box.

PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS is a popular Mandriva-based distro providing a complete DE, designed for user-friendliness and is
described as "simple", though its definition of simple is quite different than the Arch definition. Arch is designed
as a simple base system to be customized from the ground up and is aimed more toward advanced users. PCLOS
uses the apt package manager as a wrapper for RPM packages. Arch uses its own independently-developed
pacman package manager with .pkg.tar.xz packages. PCLOS is very GUI-driven, provides GUI hardware
configuration tools and the Synaptic package management front-end, and claims to have little or no reliance on
the shell. Arch is command-line oriented and designed for more simple approaches to system configuration,
management and maintenance. PCLOS recommends 256MB RAM as part of its minimum system requirements.
Being more lightweight, Arch can run on systems with much less system memory, requiring only 64MB of RAM
for a base i686 install, and will run flawlessly on more modern systems.

The *BSDs
*BSDs share a common origin and descend directly from the work done at UC Berkeley to produce a freely
redistributable, free of cost, UNIX system. They are not GNU/Linux distributions, but rather, UNIX-like operating
systems. Therefore, although Arch and the *BSDs share the concept of a tightly-integrated base and ports
system, along with a similar init framework, they are absolutely not related from a code standpoint, except for
perhaps vi, as Arch's vi is the original BSD vi (most *BSDs do not use the original BSD vi anymore). *BSDs
were derived from the original AT&T UNIX code and have a true UNIX heritage. To learn more about the *BSD
variants visit the vendor's site.

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FreeBSD

Both Arch and FreeBSD (http://www.freebsd.org/about.html) offer software which can be obtained using
binaries or compiled using 'ports' systems. Both share a very similar init system. Like other *BSDs, the FreeBSD
base is developed fundamentally as a system designed as a whole, with each application 'ported' over to
FreeBSD and made sure to work in the process. In contrast, GNU/Linux distributions such as Arch exist as
amalgams combined from many separate sources. Both Arch and FreeBSD use /etc/rc.conf as a major
configuration file. The FreeBSD license is generally more protective of the coder, in contrast to the GPL, which
favors protection of the code itself. Arch is released under the GPL. In FreeBSD, like Arch, decisions are
delegated to you, the power user. This may be the most interesting comparison to Arch since it goes
head-to-head in package modernity and has a somewhat sizable, smart, active, no-nonsense community. Both
systems share many similarities and FreeBSD users will generally feel quite comfortable with most aspects of
Arch.

NetBSD

NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable UNIX-like open-source operating system available for over 50
platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to hand-held and embedded devices. Its clean
design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is
user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through pkgsrc, the NetBSD
Packages Collection. Arch may not operate on the vast number of devices NetBSD operates on, but for an i686
system it may offer more applications. Also, the default installation method in pkgsrc is to pull and compile
sources whereas Arch offers binary packages. Arch does share similarities with NetBSD; both use
/etc/rc.conf as the primary configuration file, both require manual configuration, they are minimalist and
lightweight, both offer ports systems as well as binaries and both have active, no-nonsense developers and
communities. Arch also borrows from *BSD for its init system concepts.

OpenBSD

The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. Efforts focus
on portability, standardization, code correctness, proactive security, and integrated cryptography. In contrast,
Arch focuses more on simplicity, elegance, minimalism and bleeding edge software. OpenBSD is self-described
as 'perhaps the #1 security OS'.

In common with Arch, OpenBSD offers a small, elegant, base install with a ports and packaging system to allow
for easy installation and management of programs which are not part of the base operating system. In contrast to
a GNU/Linux system like Arch, but in common with most other BSD-based operating systems, the OpenBSD
kernel and userland programs, such as the shell and common tools (like ls, cp, cat and ps), are developed
together in a single source repository.

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This page was last modified on 18 May 2011, at 21:42.

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