[arch-general] Iinstallation program

[phani]

On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:54:21 +0530, mike cloaked <mike.cloaked at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> ...
> So all in all this seems to me very much in the spirit of "The Arch
> Way" and was not too much of a learning curve. Yes for someone
> inexperienced in using linux this would take a whole lot longer.
>
> However I believe that it was useful going through the process of
> doing an install manually - and there is enough information on the
> arch wiki to provide everything I needed to get the system up and
> running - which is I believe what many others are likely to be doing
> as well?
> ...


i'm very new to arch and have installed it only twice: once via the aif  
script (if that's the name), and once without.

yes, the first time went a bit faster, since the install script took some  
decisions for me that otherwise i would have had to research, but very  
soon afterwards i had to read up on all those things anyway.

the second time around didn't take that much longer (since i was a little  
familiar with arch by then), but if my first time had been without the  
script, it would have taken a bit longer.

IMO that's a good thing though. as far as i understand, arch isn't meant  
for complete linux newbees, or people who just want to use the distro,  
without understanding hardly anything about how it works.

i've been using openSUSE earlier, and to me it appears they (oS) are  
trying too much for a compromise: suitable for all types of users, geeks  
as well as those without any technical inclination or understanding.

this leads to a lot of unnecessary complexity, for both types of users. i  
don't believe every linux user should be forced to become a 'geek' -- but  
there's plenty of distros that focus on the non-geek market already.  
they're much further away from the 'bleeding edge,' but for somebody w/o  
technical interest or inclination, that shouldn't matter too much.

on the other hand, arch is the first distro i experience that's pretty  
darn close to current development, while delivering a very stable system  
for only a little bit investment of time & energy to understand how things  
work.

i don't have any vote or voice in this, but i'm perfectly happy with the  
way arch is right now, with or without a rudimentary install script. for  
those who just want to use their system, there's other distros, or arch  
derived ones that (are supposed to) make life easier. (no idea if or how  
that works.)

openSUSE would be a good choice for those who find arch too demanding,  
since it allows one to run a standard (non-bleeding-edge) system without  
knowing much, or, after getting used to it, add other repositories from  
OBS (open build service) to spice things up.

for those who are sure they want to undertand at least the basics and take  
some trouble to get more up-to-date programs & libraries, arch makes life  
easier by purposely not providing all the hand-holding that others are  
famous for.

-- 
phani.