Is Arch really that minimalistic? It’s been a few years for me, granted, but I recall they had no package granularity at all. No options to install headers on their own, shit like ssh-client and ssh-server only available bundled together, etc.
Exactly. At times, Debian offers more package granularity than Arch, which is really the key to minimize bloat. imo one should use Arch for the bleeding-edge packages it provides, not for the rather exaggerated minimalism argument. Almost every distro can be reduced and micro-optimized to be as minimal as possible.
I think it mostly refers to a fresh install, which is fairly slim I guess (though not THAT slim either). The package (non-)granularity is still just absurd sometimes.
Arch is customizable, like legos. It’s neither minimalistic, neither lightweight. It gives you almost unlimited amount of legos and you build something. Bad at building - you fucked. Good at building - congrats.
You don’t require to melt those bricks from plastic tho (gentoo) or rebuild an existing OS (Ubuntu).
By design it supports a highly minimalistic installation via the PKGBUILD system and AUR. If you stick to the official repos only, you’ll naturally have some decisions made for you by package maintainers, which may include bundling and preconfiguration. It’s still minimal by conventional standards, but maybe not if you’re an RMS type.
Is Arch really that minimalistic? It’s been a few years for me, granted, but I recall they had no package granularity at all. No options to install headers on their own, shit like ssh-client and ssh-server only available bundled together, etc.
Exactly. At times, Debian offers more package granularity than Arch, which is really the key to minimize bloat. imo one should use Arch for the bleeding-edge packages it provides, not for the rather exaggerated minimalism argument. Almost every distro can be reduced and micro-optimized to be as minimal as possible.
I think it mostly refers to a fresh install, which is fairly slim I guess (though not THAT slim either). The package (non-)granularity is still just absurd sometimes.
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Arch is customizable, like legos. It’s neither minimalistic, neither lightweight. It gives you almost unlimited amount of legos and you build something. Bad at building - you fucked. Good at building - congrats.
You don’t require to melt those bricks from plastic tho (gentoo) or rebuild an existing OS (Ubuntu).
Also when you buy Arch Lego© set, you also get a great instructions on how to do it (arch wiki) + recommendations on how to order additional less-frequently used legos (AUR).
That’s why I prefer Arch. 👌
By design it supports a highly minimalistic installation via the PKGBUILD system and AUR. If you stick to the official repos only, you’ll naturally have some decisions made for you by package maintainers, which may include bundling and preconfiguration. It’s still minimal by conventional standards, but maybe not if you’re an RMS type.