I’ve been using Debian (and formerly Ubuntu) for many years.

But I’ve been wanting to tell people that I use Arch.

I’ve been considering the following distros:

  • Arch
  • Cachy
  • Manjaro
  • Any others?

I’m leaning towards Arch or Cachy. This is for a mediocre laptop that I’m planning to use as a media center: Kodi, Retroarch, Steam, etc. Should I even be using Arch for this? Maybe Debian is more stable…

Sorry if this has been asked before. Thanks for any tips!

  • ashenone@lemmy.ml
    30·
    17 days ago

    EndeavorOS is my go to for arch based systems. But with the archinstall script I’d say just give vanilla a go

  • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
    171·
    17 days ago

    EndeavourOS. It’s like Arch, but a bit easier with a few automation and gui stuff builtin. It’s still heavy on terminal usage and it comes light out of the box. I switched from Manjaro to EndeavourOS, because Manjaro gave me some problems (especially their package manager and because of the AUR too, and I didn’t like the maintainers, no further comment). It’s my daily driver for years now. I use it for everything, daily usage, little programming, gaming on Steam and especially RetroArch too. I’m a huge RetroArch fan. :-) So if you plan to use base Archlinux or Manjaro, then I can recommend to use EndeavourOS a lot.

    Cachy OS is probably a good choice too, because their focus on performance optimizations. But they do also have a bit more, let’s say bloat, out of the box and their branding is a bit strong it seems. It’s a bit farther away from base Archlinux than EndeavourOS is.

      • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
        5·
        17 days ago

        I was teaching a friend Linux, by ways of running through the manual Arch installation process and finally got to be on the other side of the ‘Ok, now that we’ve spent a ton of time doing this the hard way, here(endeavorOS) is how you use tools to do it in 3 seconds’.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    6·
    17 days ago

    Wait…so you’re looking for a solution with zero problems because of…clout or something? I don’t get it.

    If you like Debian, just stay with Debian. Especially if you’re not familiar with what running Arch really means in the deeper sense. Mostly that the guardrails are off, in a sense.

    CachyOS puts a ton of work into adding UX helpers that makes it pretty user friendly, but it’s still going to have a lot of manual intervention required, but that’s a feature to some.

    If you have an AMD laptop, maybe look into installing SteamOS and Kodi as a non-steam app. That could be your sweet spot.

    • rav3n@ttrpg.network
      11·
      16 days ago

      I’ve been using it for 5+ years with no issues specific to Manjaro.

      Arch on the other hand has intervention notices on its front page. Manjaro holds updates back a bit so they don’t have to deal with the bleeding edge of Arch.

  • darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    5·
    17 days ago

    For a mediacenter that isn’t on bleeding edge hardware, fedora or Debian would be my choice for stability. Performance will be similar regardless of distro.

    I use arch on my desktop and laptop and Debian/Ubuntu on servers.

  • vaionko@sopuli.xyz
    5·
    16 days ago

    Just plain Arch, been using it for the past 5 years. Haven’t told anyone unless askes though.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Same here, just plain Arch (BTW). I also don’t mention it IRL unless someone asks, and they never have lol.

  • kyub@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    4·
    15 days ago

    Manjaro isn’t recommended. They made lots of weird decisions and mistakes in the past, maybe still do. Wouldn’t trust them. Endeavour or Cachy are the current recommendations for “easy Arch”. If you’re able to install and maintain vanilla Arch, I’d recommend Arch though. Cut the middleman.

  • oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    17 days ago

    I use Arch btw. The best Arch distro is just normal Arch linux. If you really want stuff from other “Arch distros”, you can add their repos or customize your configs. There’s nothing you can do in an Arch distro you can’t do with Arch itself.

  • inzen@lemmy.world
    3·
    16 days ago

    I use cachy os for the optimizations on modern hardware and access to newer packages. I use it on ny pc for gaming and laptop for development. I find it more convenient than arch. But I can’t say if it is better.

  • Veraxis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    17 days ago

    I use plain Arch for desktop, but for servers I use headless debian. A media center is sort of in between, so up to you. In terms of resource usage on an older laptop, I expect the choice of DE would matter more.