I have recently been trying out Arch Linux again. After working with Slackware Linux for some time now, I felt a need to explore another option. Basically I decided that what I needed for a server system might be quite different from what I needed for a desktop workstation. Slackware is awesome for server work, but is somewhat conservative. This makes is less attractive for desktop systems where having later versions of software is more desireable. Arch Linux is also compiled for i686 architecture from top to bottom, as opposed to Slackware’s i486 default. This makes a difference in performance that I notice.

What I did not expect was a crash course in just how different two flavors of Linux can be. Slackware uses System V structure. Since I’ve used mostly Slackware, that’s what I’m most used to. Arch Linux uses BSD structure, and that is a totally different way of organizing things. It has been quite an adventure learning how to do the same things in the different environment. I can’t say that one is better than the other, but they are definitely two distinct species.

So the next time someone claims to be a Linux guru, I will nod and ask, "but which Linux?"

-= G =-