Arch Linux facts for kids
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| Company / developer | Levente Polyak and others |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | March 11, 2002 |
| Latest stable release | (Rolling release) / Installation medium 2020.07.01 |
| Marketing target | Power-users |
| Update method | Pacman |
| Package manager | Pacman |
| Supported platforms | i686, x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | Bash |
| License | Free software licenses (mainly GPL) |
Arch Linux (usually just called Arch) is a Linux-based operating system for 64-bit computers. It mostly has free software included with it, and supports community involvement.
Arch Linux focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and to use it, the user needs to have a motive to learn about it. A package manager made only for Arch Linux named "pacman" can be used to install, remove and update packages of software on the computer.
Contents
History
Arch Linux was inspired by CRUX, another minimalist Linux distribution.
Originally, Arch Linux was only for 32-bit x86 systems, but 64-bit was supported in April 2006. In January 2017, 32-bit support was discontinued, but a derivative by the community called Arch Linux 32 has been produced for 32-bit systems.
Installation
Unlike other Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Arch Linux's installation requires the user to enter commands manually. This can be scary for beginners, but the wiki suggests that new users can still install Arch Linux by investing time and effort.
Package Management
Pacman is the official package manager of Arch Linux. It was written in the C programming language by Judd Vinet. The package manager handles all the packages on the system, and does installation, removal, upgrades, and more.
As a rolling release system, Arch Linux's repositories are being constantly updated.
Arch Build System (ABS)
The Arch Build System is a system that automatically makes packages from a PKGBUILD file. The makepkg tool can convert these files into packages which are recognized by pacman, downloading all the source code specified and compiling it.
Arch User Repository (AUR)
The Arch User Repository is a repository for PKGBUILD scripts made by users. This allows users to install packages otherwise not in the official repositories.
Images for kids
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Screenshot of pacstrap during installation.
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Neofetch output of an Arch Linux Installation.
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archinstall
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Example of pacman usage
See also
In Spanish: Arch Linux para niños
