Just to chime in, I first tried arch because some youtuber I followed recommended it, but after 5 years I would say I’ve stayed with it for the AUR and the community. The AUR has almost every app I’ve ever needed, and whenever I have a problem there’s always a solution on one forum or another, to the point where I can usually just copy and paste it into the terminal and it’s solved!
AUR is kind of the worst feature Arch offers and I am not actively using Arch right now anyway. Because its used for the wrong purpose: “install any app you need/want”. Thats dangerous and creates problems by itself.
I’d rather rely on flatpak/appimages, but open for counter arguments.
Users not being aware of what kind of package they install on their system and how AUR packages can conflict with normal repo packages. Additionally its a big security risk if you cannot/don’t read the code.
AUR is basically like installing software from some kind of online source which is not supervised by anyone.
So much this! As a user of both Arch and Gentoo I say, don’t use Arch as Gentoo! It’s not Gentoo! AUR is not a standard repository and there’s a reason they make you jump through hoops just to use the thing.
Also, it’s a total pain when normal package management is quick and easy. The building alone is weird in Arch and somehow like 60% of the crap I try to build from AUR fails hard and I just can’t be bothered to spend more than like twenty minutes tweaking on it. Gr. 😅
(Aaalllsooo, apparently lots of people break their Arch installs using the AUR like it’s a normal repo and then wonder why Arch is so crap and leave.)
Just to chime in, I first tried arch because some youtuber I followed recommended it, but after 5 years I would say I’ve stayed with it for the AUR and the community. The AUR has almost every app I’ve ever needed, and whenever I have a problem there’s always a solution on one forum or another, to the point where I can usually just copy and paste it into the terminal and it’s solved!
AUR is kind of the worst feature Arch offers and I am not actively using Arch right now anyway. Because its used for the wrong purpose: “install any app you need/want”. Thats dangerous and creates problems by itself. I’d rather rely on flatpak/appimages, but open for counter arguments.
What problems does the AUR create? I just install using yay, and it mostly works fine
Users not being aware of what kind of package they install on their system and how AUR packages can conflict with normal repo packages. Additionally its a big security risk if you cannot/don’t read the code.
AUR is basically like installing software from some kind of online source which is not supervised by anyone.
So much this! As a user of both Arch and Gentoo I say, don’t use Arch as Gentoo! It’s not Gentoo! AUR is not a standard repository and there’s a reason they make you jump through hoops just to use the thing.
Also, it’s a total pain when normal package management is quick and easy. The building alone is weird in Arch and somehow like 60% of the crap I try to build from AUR fails hard and I just can’t be bothered to spend more than like twenty minutes tweaking on it. Gr. 😅
(Aaalllsooo, apparently lots of people break their Arch installs using the AUR like it’s a normal repo and then wonder why Arch is so crap and leave.)
What do you mean by ‘normal’ package management?