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JohnnyBoy022
February 19th, 2008, 04:47 AM
Ive used Ubuntu for the past few months, and I love it. However it isn't fast enough. I also like arch's idea of fully customizing and knowing how your system works.

Any distros I can try that will allow me to get used to editing my configuration files and one that I can try a text based install with? My goal is to end up installing arch but I don't think I'm ready for it yet. Thanks!

Tenken
February 19th, 2008, 04:56 AM
You can probably install Arch without having install another "text based installer" distro, their installer also uses an ncurses menu system so a lot of the install is menu driven. Their beginners guide (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide) is excellent and walks you through everything step by step.

fwojciec
February 19th, 2008, 05:03 AM
If you don't want to jump right in I'd say try Arch in vmware or something like that -- I think that would be a more useful preparation for Arch than the idea of a "transition" distro.

K.Mandla
February 19th, 2008, 08:16 AM
Actually, I would suggest trying a minimal, command-line installation of Ubuntu first. Ubuntu does all the hard stuff you'll have to do yourself when you try Arch, but starting from ground zero like that will give you an idea what needs attention when you jump to Arch.

It's not the perfect proving ground, but it will give you a slight idea what's to come.

Nevon
February 19th, 2008, 06:51 PM
I've been playing with Arch in VirtualBox for over a month now, and that's been very helpful. I usually mess something up during configuration, and I prefer to mess up in a virtual environment than on my desktop. It took me ages to figure out the whole "location not recognized, using 'C' for default parameter" (or something like that).

bwtranch
February 20th, 2008, 12:36 AM
Actually, I would suggest trying a minimal, command-line installation of Ubuntu first. Ubuntu does all the hard stuff you'll have to do yourself when you try Arch, but starting from ground zero like that will give you an idea what needs attention when you jump to Arch.

It's not the perfect proving ground, but it will give you a slight idea what's to come.

That's an interesting idea. I have never done an install with Ubuntu with the terminal. HA. I was going to suggest maybe trying Gentoo and then Arch would be a piece o' cake.:)

sujoy
February 20th, 2008, 04:24 PM
hell ya!!

i installed gentoo first, seemed like i was writing the damn kernel myself :) and then some days later with arch, i was just flowing through.

back to the question, i guess its better to have arch installed on a separate partition (dual boot with ubuntu), or a separate HDD if possible.