Configuration Time: Ubuntu and Arch
I’ve been thinking lately about the configuration time I’ve spent with Arch vs. what I’ve spent with Ubuntu. Now, by configuration time, I’m not just talking about hardware, I’m also referring to customizing and setting up the working environment to my liking. Now, a lot of you might think that Ubuntu is set up in a workable environment to start with. It is for the regular user, however I don’t feel I’m a ‘regular’ user. In Arch, it’s the exact opposite. Once installed, you reboot and have a prompt and a fairly clean slate to work with. Let’s look at what I had to do to get each environment to a state where I was happy with how things were working.
Ubuntu
I rebooted Ubuntu and logged in, greeted by GDM. I logged in and was presented with the default desktop, default apps, no actual ATi driver (using the open source version) but everything worked. So, what did I have to do to get the environment to my liking? I had some things I needed to install:
- ATi proprietary drivers (some may frown on this, but I’d like to use vendor-supplied where possible)
- build-essential, in case I find something not in the repository so I can build it.
- Mozilla Firefox from Mozilla. I find things seem to work a little better with the actual client from Mozilla.
- Media codecs. I need my media to play. This involved adding a new repository and installing a couple of packages
So far, not a big deal. Now we get into the area where I spent a majority of my time, namely removing things I didn’t need and disabling services I had no intentions of using. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ubuntu (and it’s still on the laptop), but I just wish some days for a stripped down version other than the server version. It would be nice to start with a clean baseline install. At any rate, here’s what I ended up doing:
- Uninstalled applications that were of no use to me (bluetooth, evolution, PDA utils, Firefox from the repository, Tracker and a few other things)
- I disabled some services from starting up at boot time that I didn’t need
- Edited some menus to remove / update entries.
- I disable some session startup applications
On top of that, I found my favorite GTK theme and went ahead and installed it.
Arch
Arch is at the opposite end of the spectrum. As I mentioned, once installed, you get a login prompt and can log in as root only. So, the time I spent in Arch was installing / configuring things I need. Here’s what I went through:
- Create my everyday user and add to the needed groups
- Install xorg, flglrx and configure it
- Install Fluxbox and configure it. I should note that as I install / remove apps, I have to edit a menu. No big deal, it doesn’t take too long
- Install some needed services (hal, fam, dbus, cpufreq, acpi) and configure them
- Install the apps I need / want (Firefox, Thunderbird, Conky, Amarok, etc.)
Now, as far as multimedia codecs goes, I didn’t have to add repositories or anything of that nature. One pacman command and I was set up. Not a strike against Ubuntu, just here for comparison’s sake. As of this writing, I have pretty much everything I need to function. Below is a screenshot of my working environment (click to view full size)
In Conclusion
In conclusion, I figure it’s a wash as far as time spent. While Ubuntu will get you up and running quickly, if you’re anything like I am you like to tweak / play / streamline and that’s where the timesink comes for Ubuntu. One the opposite end, Arch starts you off with the bare essentials and you install what you need. Ubuntu resides on my laptop because I’d rather not deal with tweaking it too much since it’s been relegated back to mobile / secondary status. Which one is for you? Well, that depends on what you want. If you want instant gratification and aren’t concerned with default applications, Ubuntu would be the way to go. If you want to learn about Linux and install exactly what you want, go with Arch.
One final note: Arch is a rolling release distribution, which means packages are constantly being updated and there isn’t a set ‘release’ with set versions of software like Ubuntu has. This can be a blessing and occasionally a curse when something comes down the pike that breaks things.