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!

  • glitching@lemmy.ml
    1·
    5 hours ago

    can someone who runs arch btw on weak hardware, like dual-core U-series i5 and such, tell me how they’re handling AUR and friends? every time I bring that up I get downvotes as if I’m some MICROS~1 agent paid to besmirch arch btw’s good name and whatnot…

    the idea that I hafta build and compile shit on a puny dual-core in 2026 is fucking ludicrous to me, never mind the bloat and cruft from all the build tools and deps for every possible stack. so what obvious solution am I missing? like, how do you handle a full system upgrade, say you got like ten things from AUR in addition to regular packages, what does that look like?

    • spacemanspiffy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      One suggestion is to look for -bin versions of the packages you want. Those are precompiled and should install only marginally slower than a regular pacman package.

      • glitching@lemmy.ml
        1·
        4 hours ago

        first time I heard of this, thanks. so running it thusly it’s no different than a copr or apt repo?

        • spacemanspiffy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Not quite as that its user-created and submitted.

          But yeah lots of packages have a -bin counterpart that will install a lot quicker than compiling it for yourself.