- shallow mental model: I know where everything is, I know all the moving pieces
How is that different than Ubuntu (or any other distro once you've used it enough)? (serious question, considering the same switch myself)
How is that different than Ubuntu (or any other distro once you've used it enough)? (serious question, considering the same switch myself)
On Arch Linux, I go to /etc/rc.d and remove or modify any scripts, which are clearly labelled.
On Ubuntu, I think I need to weed through the dozen or so numbered /etc/rc directories and find what I need and modify. I got pretty frustrated about this.
I don't know where I'm going to be able to modify the modules that get run when my computer starts on Ubuntu, but with Arch, there is a clearly labeled array in the rc.conf file called modules.
It just seems like looking under the hood of ubuntu is something I'm not supposed to do, and arch requires you to when you install it, but it is tremendously simple.
I want to switch back.
I realize Ubuntu is moving to upstart, maybe that will simplify things, but the current sysV run level model results in tedious complexity that I don't need. Other's might, but I don't.
Usage of lsmod/rmmod and /etc/modprobe.d isn't exactly hard to understand either, though i don't know of a GUI for this.
To make a program not start on startup, either apt-get remove it, or chmod -x the init script.
I've used both Arch and Ubuntu extensively, and I like them both. For servers, I tend to use Ubuntu server edition, which really isn't that much different to Arch + a few hours of setup. It's really just a stripped down Debian flavored linux... nothing complex about it... but you do get the benefit of being downstream from lots and lots of testing, Arch not so much.
Pacman is 10x simpler then deb/ppa, so Arch is great if you like to tinker, or if you are building a special purpose system - eg for freeswitch, mythtv, xbmc, kiosk browsing, appliances etc.
I currently run Ubuntu desktop 10.04, and several Ubuntu Servers in bridged VirtualBox vm's for development, which lets me simulate a multi-server production environment on my desktop.
However, I've been thinking about switching the desktop to Arch using Xmonad or i3, and KVM for the vm's (keeping Ubuntu Server).
Any experience running KVM on Arch? Assuming there's no issues with it.
I also see qemu-kvm can run Windows too, which somehow escaped my notice. Cool. If only it could OS X as well, I could skip buying a Mac and spend the money on a souped up dev laptop from XoticPC instead.