I did it, I jumped ship from Ubuntu to Antergos and I honestly can’t see myself going back. Here’s some thoughts on that.
Why I switched
There’s many reasons for my switch, but the main one has been stability. Ubuntu has been getting more problem-filled with every new release for me so I had enough. Not only that, but due to it being dependent on GNOME packages, stuff was being stripped away too and it’s just a mess now. Some applications have normal title-bars, some have GNOME’s new styling with everything sodding hidden and it’s just all mashed together.
Audacity would constantly screw up and just skip over audio while trying to record or playback, or just flat out not work.
Multiple games wouldn’t give me audio until I killed PulseAudio and reloaded it or did other trickery. It was becoming a nuisance, especially when I want to livestream and “oh sorry guys, let me fix my audio, fuc…”.
It seems Ubuntu has a lot of problems with their setup of PulseAudio. I don’t know what they’re doing to it, but they’re murdering the poor thing.
Antergos, I choose you!
If Antergos is anything, it’s like walking in heavy rain without a coat and — suddenly the clouds part and the almighty sun is shining down on you to make everything better. Something like this essentially (thanks Samsai):
I’mdefinitely probably not overselling it — okay maybe a little.
I adore the Arch User Repository (AUR) and have found it so incredibly useful for multiple applications I use on a daily basis, especially when those same applications on Ubuntu could be out of date for weeks and months. The brand new Minecraft launcher was in it the day it was release by the official developers, the itch.io app is in it, everything I need is right there and tested by tons of people. It’s essentially a far better PPA-like system. It’s easier to understand too, thanks to a much clearer layout on the actual website.
Just don't outright trust everything on the AUR, make sure you read a few comments before installing a random package. I'm sure you're all smart enough to know to do that anyway.
Getting used to KDE after being on GNOME or GNOME-like desktops for many years has been a challenge by itself, but wow, it’s actually a lot nicer. Things aren’t hidden away where I don’t expect them to be, if I want something it’s usually right where I would expect it in a proper menu.
There was two “gotchas” I had to sort out. I couldn’t figure out why OBS Studio wouldn’t pick up any video, so eventually I tested gaming and games ran at 5 FPS. Turns out that installing the nvidia drivers didn’t come with the 32bit libs as a dependency. So, if you do decide to check out Antergos with Nvidia, make sure “lib32-nvidia-libgl” is installed too. This took me a good day to figure out too, as I didn’t think to test games until the next day and that made me realize it was a driver issue.
The second was that one day I booted up to a black screen with a cursor, as the system booted so fast that LightDM didn't load (Arch Wiki entry). I had to edit "/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf" to include:
I also learnt about bash aliases thanks to being on Arch, so instead of running something I can never remember like “Yuarty -sYusudaadasdas” to update, I have it setup so I just run “upall” in terminal and it updates everything for me — glorious! It’s easy to do as well, simply edit:
Add at the bottom:
You can substitute “yaourt -Syua” for anything, like “apt-get update && apt-get upgrade” for Debian/Ubuntu and so on.
And then save it.
Lastly, enjoy a shot of my KDE Antergos dual-desktop:
Seriously, you should give Antergos a try. It’s Arch, but a more tame Arch since it has a live-media option and you can pick what desktop you want from the installer. This was a key selling point for me, and the installer was a breeze too. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Why I switched
There’s many reasons for my switch, but the main one has been stability. Ubuntu has been getting more problem-filled with every new release for me so I had enough. Not only that, but due to it being dependent on GNOME packages, stuff was being stripped away too and it’s just a mess now. Some applications have normal title-bars, some have GNOME’s new styling with everything sodding hidden and it’s just all mashed together.
Audacity would constantly screw up and just skip over audio while trying to record or playback, or just flat out not work.
Multiple games wouldn’t give me audio until I killed PulseAudio and reloaded it or did other trickery. It was becoming a nuisance, especially when I want to livestream and “oh sorry guys, let me fix my audio, fuc…”.
It seems Ubuntu has a lot of problems with their setup of PulseAudio. I don’t know what they’re doing to it, but they’re murdering the poor thing.
Antergos, I choose you!
If Antergos is anything, it’s like walking in heavy rain without a coat and — suddenly the clouds part and the almighty sun is shining down on you to make everything better. Something like this essentially (thanks Samsai):
I’m
I adore the Arch User Repository (AUR) and have found it so incredibly useful for multiple applications I use on a daily basis, especially when those same applications on Ubuntu could be out of date for weeks and months. The brand new Minecraft launcher was in it the day it was release by the official developers, the itch.io app is in it, everything I need is right there and tested by tons of people. It’s essentially a far better PPA-like system. It’s easier to understand too, thanks to a much clearer layout on the actual website.
Just don't outright trust everything on the AUR, make sure you read a few comments before installing a random package. I'm sure you're all smart enough to know to do that anyway.
Getting used to KDE after being on GNOME or GNOME-like desktops for many years has been a challenge by itself, but wow, it’s actually a lot nicer. Things aren’t hidden away where I don’t expect them to be, if I want something it’s usually right where I would expect it in a proper menu.
There was two “gotchas” I had to sort out. I couldn’t figure out why OBS Studio wouldn’t pick up any video, so eventually I tested gaming and games ran at 5 FPS. Turns out that installing the nvidia drivers didn’t come with the 32bit libs as a dependency. So, if you do decide to check out Antergos with Nvidia, make sure “lib32-nvidia-libgl” is installed too. This took me a good day to figure out too, as I didn’t think to test games until the next day and that made me realize it was a driver issue.
The second was that one day I booted up to a black screen with a cursor, as the system booted so fast that LightDM didn't load (Arch Wiki entry). I had to edit "/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf" to include:
[LightDM]
logind-check-graphical=trueI also learnt about bash aliases thanks to being on Arch, so instead of running something I can never remember like “Yuarty -sYusudaadasdas” to update, I have it setup so I just run “upall” in terminal and it updates everything for me — glorious! It’s easy to do as well, simply edit:
~/.bashrcAdd at the bottom:
alias upall='yaourt -Syua'You can substitute “yaourt -Syua” for anything, like “apt-get update && apt-get upgrade” for Debian/Ubuntu and so on.
And then save it.
Lastly, enjoy a shot of my KDE Antergos dual-desktop:
Seriously, you should give Antergos a try. It’s Arch, but a more tame Arch since it has a live-media option and you can pick what desktop you want from the installer. This was a key selling point for me, and the installer was a breeze too. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Welcome to the bleeding edge!!
I switched from Ubuntu to Arch about three years ago, and I've never even thought about switching to anything else. I don't think I could ever switch from a rolling release at this point - it just doesn't make sense. With Ubuntu, I had a dist-upgrade bork things up badly going from 10.04 to 10.10, and I never trusted dist-upgrade again. That meant I had to reinstall every six months to stay current with Ubuntu. I haven't reinstalled Arch since 2013.
Last edited by hummer010 on 18 January 2017 at 11:22 pm UTC
I switched from Ubuntu to Arch about three years ago, and I've never even thought about switching to anything else. I don't think I could ever switch from a rolling release at this point - it just doesn't make sense. With Ubuntu, I had a dist-upgrade bork things up badly going from 10.04 to 10.10, and I never trusted dist-upgrade again. That meant I had to reinstall every six months to stay current with Ubuntu. I haven't reinstalled Arch since 2013.
Last edited by hummer010 on 18 January 2017 at 11:22 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Hi Liam, I can understand your frustration with Ubuntu from a personal point of view. I used Ubuntu for a long time, until I needed a more "Windows like" interface for computers belonging to family members, so I installed Mint for them and then found I preferred it myself for both gaming and programming. However, as owner and main contributor to GOL, I guess you need to take a wider view on which distribution(s) to use for your GOL activities.
Currently, I assume that your game reviews are performed on the current Ubuntu LTS. So, if a game works well for you, it should work well for me on my up to date Mint OS (as mostly on the same code base). Similarly, most commercial Linux games are tested against Ubuntu (and perhaps Steam OS), but often not against Arch type distributions. Assuming that you will use only Antergos for future reviews, can you give your views about the relevance of those future reviews for the current majority of the GOL readership, that if I understand your stats properly, use a Ubuntu based distribution.
Please do not take my above questions as criticism, as I am thinking of trying Fedora and Arch myself, but I am concerned about loosing simple and reliable execution of games in my now large games library.
Currently, I assume that your game reviews are performed on the current Ubuntu LTS. So, if a game works well for you, it should work well for me on my up to date Mint OS (as mostly on the same code base). Similarly, most commercial Linux games are tested against Ubuntu (and perhaps Steam OS), but often not against Arch type distributions. Assuming that you will use only Antergos for future reviews, can you give your views about the relevance of those future reviews for the current majority of the GOL readership, that if I understand your stats properly, use a Ubuntu based distribution.
Please do not take my above questions as criticism, as I am thinking of trying Fedora and Arch myself, but I am concerned about loosing simple and reliable execution of games in my now large games library.
5 Likes, Who?
natewardawg Jan 18, 2017
Welcome to Arch! :)
I'm personally a Manjaro user, however I've also rolled my own pure Arch install, used both Antergos and Apricity, and even dip my toes into the Ubuntu pool every few releases just to see how things are going, but for several years now I've found myself always going back to Manjaro. It blends stability with bleeding edge, doesn't break as often as the more pure Arch(s) and makes drivers super easy to install. However, if it were to go away Antergos would be next on my list.
It's probably a good time to get on Arch now that (AFAIK) both Gnome 3 and KDE 5 are going into stable mode for a while :)
Congrats and Enjoy!
Last edited by natewardawg on 18 January 2017 at 11:24 pm UTC
I'm personally a Manjaro user, however I've also rolled my own pure Arch install, used both Antergos and Apricity, and even dip my toes into the Ubuntu pool every few releases just to see how things are going, but for several years now I've found myself always going back to Manjaro. It blends stability with bleeding edge, doesn't break as often as the more pure Arch(s) and makes drivers super easy to install. However, if it were to go away Antergos would be next on my list.
It's probably a good time to get on Arch now that (AFAIK) both Gnome 3 and KDE 5 are going into stable mode for a while :)
Congrats and Enjoy!
Last edited by natewardawg on 18 January 2017 at 11:24 pm UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: lordheavywelcome to the dark side :)
Muhahahahaha, ahem.
Yes, welcome :)
2 Likes, Who?
Quotea proper menu.So much this. Although my 'proper menu' of choice is Cinnamon's. The approach of both Unity and GNOME are abhorring to me.
Funny story, actually. I installed a bunch of DE's on my laptop so my mom could try a few before I'd try and install Linux on her machine. She picked Cinnamon, so then I gave it a go. Not looked back since. I wouldn't call it 'fancy', 'flashy' or 'modern', I would call it decent, proper and timeless.
But about the distro: I had originally planned to install Arch (or Antergos/Manjaro) when I upgrade my PC (planned for this summer), but this all sounds like I'm gonna give it a go way sooner.
2 Likes, Who?
@liamdawe I'm sorry to hear that you've went KDE, but especially because you had troubles with GNOME... But reading your post, I'm not sure if you were using a regular Ubuntu or an Ubuntu GNOME spin, since you're talking about the mixes between "normal" and "GNOME’s new styling" title-bars. If you were running vanilla GNOME, you shouldn't have this kind of problem, all the applications look and feel are the same (at least on Fedora). So, could you clarify that please?
Last edited by Creak on 19 January 2017 at 12:19 am UTC
Last edited by Creak on 19 January 2017 at 12:19 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
welcome to arch family brow
0 Likes
UnholyVision Jan 19, 2017
As others have said, welcome to the Arch life. :D
QuoteYuarty -sYusudaadasdas” to updateOnly a suggestion (For the people wanting the more lazy route), but if you want Yaourt fancy, you should try out "yaourt-gui" in the AUR. At least anyone that doesn't blindly install everything from AUR. Because it makes Yaourt very basic user-friendly. You still need to know package names, but it makes searching the names easier too. As you just type the number 8 for "yaourt -Ss", follwed by a prompt you enter text for said search.
1 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me