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Comment by compactmani | Hacker News Reader

I don't think the post does an adequate job of why-not-linux. A distro like arch would be a natural choice for someone leaving OSX for a clean open-source (but pre-free) lifestyle, so I was surprised to see it (or something similar) not compared.

Otherwise, some nice choices there I have to admit.

i3 is my favorite WM. Going back to a desktop environment is like using a computer with missing fingers (works, but less efficient human-computer interface).

The X220 is one of the best thinkpads around, make no bones about it.

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The author listed non-invasiveness as a requirement, so that would presumably disqualify Arch on grounds of using ambiguously-named-software-that-provokes-flame-wars.

Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure how well Arch is on the "doesn't break" and "doesn't waste my time" scales. I've been using Slackware for too long to know.

(Also, he mentioned: "I tried running various Linux on my MacBook, but discovered everything I hate about managing Linux on a server platform is in fact amplified in a desktop context. It was less bad than I remembered from 10 years ago, but it was still a poor comparison to when OS X was good – again, for my requirements.")

It need not be arch that is compared as I would personally prefer to compare only free distros.

The quote provided would be fine if the author explained what he/she didn't like about managing linux on a server and how it is amplified on the desktop.

Arch is really not the distro you want to run on your daily work machine. I played around with Arch and three times the system got wrecked by a simple update.

It's just too much overhead to study the daily release notes to find out if the official update will break your system or not.

Arch is a great system for people who like to work on linux. Just like oldtimers are great cars for people who like to to get their hands dirty.

Not the author, although I do know the author. But I'd chose FreeBSD as well for ZFS and DTrace.

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