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What are the best Linux distributions for servers?

19

Options
Considered

337

User
Recs.

May 23, 2023

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

16 Options Considered

Best Linux distributions for servers	Price	Release Schedule	Package Manager
87 Debian	-	approximately every 24 months	dpkg (Debian Package Manager)
-- openSUSE	-	Point (1 year minor releases, 3 years major releases)	RPM Package Manager
-- NixOS	-	Point or Rolling	Nix Package Manager
-- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server	-	-	-
-- Red Hat Enterprise Linux	-	Varies/10 Year LTS	-

Debian

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Top Pro

Stable packages

Packages aren't cutting edge, but they're stable. See More

Top Con

Old software is not useful, but is stable

Certainly for the stable and old stable versions. But the testing version has quite up to date software. See More

ReasonableZacatzontli's Experience

rn using this on my own server, running without any issues. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

Official Supported Architectures:amd64 (x86_64), arm64 (aarch64), armel, armhf, i386, mipsel, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x

OS Family:GNU/Linux

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why its so commonly used. See More

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages. See More

ImaginativeTishpak's Experience

very stable See More

Top Pro

Very stable

It is the most stable Linux distro. See More

Top Con

Outdated kernel of the live system

Since the LiveCD is based on Debian stable the kernel is old, outdated but stable. See More

IndustriousXochiquetzal's Experience

19 Years See More

Top Pro

Light weight

Debian can be installed with minimal packages. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices: for example it is very hard to use a different Sound system than ALSA like OSS4, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Secure

It's extremely rare that a Debian release (even an old one) has a vulnerability. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is the biggest open source project with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon installation of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 37,500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

Stable release contains extremely outdated packages

If you want the newest packages, you'll have to do a minimal installation of Debian stable then upgrade to testing or unstable by editing the repositories. Save yourself time and install a distro that is rolling release by default. See More

Top Pro

Free

Free as in beer. All updates and upgrades are available to everyone completely free. See More

Top Con

No support

Debian itself does not provide commercial support for their distribution but they have teamed up with various partners to get the necessary support. See More

Top Pro

Extremely popular

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google. Or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having, it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64, kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x, source, multi-arch. See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Pro

Great package manager

Debian's apt package manager makes installing and updating the system very simple. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

TUI installer

The Debian installer can still be launched as text/curses-like installer which is more compatible and keyboard-friendly than the graphical version. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

openSUSE

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Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

openSUSE makes use of a GUI tool called YaST to install and setup an openSUSE system. YaST is very easy to use and makes the process of installing and maintaining an openSUSE installation a breeze. See More

Top Con

Packman repository has to be added to have good software support.

Specs

Release Schedule:Point (1 year minor releases, 3 years major releases)

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Rock-stable core packages

openSUSE Leap takes rock-stable core packages from Suse Linux Enterprise. See More

Top Con

Poor support for nVidia drivers in Tumbleweed

No native driver support and nouveau may be broken, especially for KDE, and not suitable for some GPUs. See More

Top Pro

Extremely reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Con

YAST not intuitive at all

On the surface YAST looks simple enough, but inside can be as complicated as a WindowsOS registry. Using YAST is not user-friendly for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Convenient package management with Zypper

Fast, reliable, powerful and almost impossible to leave a broken system. The Yast interface will also give you access to a Zypper GUI if you are uncomfortable with the command line. See More

Top Con

Short lived distro

Every release lasts 18 months only before needing a major upgrade. See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Built-in drivers

Does the job needed and has the hardware drivers for the application built-in by the H/W supplier. See More

Top Pro

Supports RPM packages

Popular format shared with distros like Fedora, RHEL, Scientific Linux, Mageia etc. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Stable, reliable, rock solid. See More

Top Pro

Probably the best KDE desktop experience

Both Gnome and KDE desktop options are well polished to fit with the opensuse theme and environement, so either desktop is a great choice. See More

Top Pro

One-Click Install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Pro

Easily get packages from other sources

SUSE Build Service offers packages from the same sources as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise and other distributions. This is the most underused package tool in Linux today. See More

Top Pro

Amazing choice for both newbies and power users

OpenSUSE is very easy in terms of installing packages, administration and customization, yet very powerful in the same. Every user should find his own piece of cake in this OS. See More

Top Pro

Outstanding community support

OpenSUSE has a VERY active user community. Questions on forums are generally answered in minutes. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated professional community

Directions on other desktop Linux's often force you to use GUI packages or have steps that introduce security issues. OpenSUSE has a professional community and directions are usually geared toward GUI and CLI with similar steps. See More

Top Pro

"Tumbleweed" Rolling Release

Regular and easy upgrades to stable and well tested software. See More

NixOS

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Top Pro

Reproducible system

NixOS is configured using the Nix package manager, allowing your system to be replicated and kept in sync across multiple machines. Great for keeping a laptop and desktop in sync. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Point or Rolling

Package Manager:Nix Package Manager

Init-System:Systemd

Official Supported Architectures:amd64, i386

Top Pro

State of the art package manager

Atomic non-destructive upgrades / rollback of a system upgrade / declarative reproducible system configuration / unprivileged installation of packages / transparent source or binary deployment. See More

Top Pro

Minimal

You can start with a minimal environment and add packages and software to suit your needs as you go along. See More

Top Pro

Robust

Packages don't break after a NixOS upgrade as they are prone to with other distros (especially Arch). See More

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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Top Pro

Each version is supported for a really long time

Each released version of RHEL is supported for around ten years by Red Hat with constant bug fixes and security updates. See More

Top Con

You need to buy a license

RHEL is a commercial Linux distributions and it's rather expensive as well, the cheapest license costs $349. See More

SpiritedVanapagan's Experience

For me is the best server distro by far. The only one possible choice apart from CentOS could be Debian. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Varies/10 Year LTS

Based On:Independent

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Top Pro

Greatly favours stability over anything else

RHEL favours stability over being up-to date. For this reason it ships with packages that may be up to two years behind in order to ensure stability over everything else. Using older versions for packages means that they have been thoroughly tested and used in production for quite some time, and are ensured to play well with each-other. This strategy has paid off quite a lot in the past. One example is the Heartbleed bug which left RHEL unaffected since it was using a two-year old OpenSSL library which did not have the bug. See More

Top Pro

Rapid security updates

Top Pro

Built-in disaster recovery solutions through clusters

RHEL has several built-in solutions for disaster recovery. For example, it comes with pacemaker which can be configured to manage multi-site and and stretch clusters across multiple geographical locations for disaster recovery and scalability. It can also be configured to trigger notifications when the status of a managed cluster changes by using enhanced pacemaker alerts. See More

Top Pro

Applications don't have to take into account potentially breaking changes in libraries

Since RHEL backports all updates and bug fixes to older versions in order to maintain package compatibility across releases, applications hosted on Red Hat Linux don't have to worry about potential breaking changes in libraries they use, especially language libraries. See More

Top Pro

Best support as far as hardware goes

This distro is by far the one with the largest number of certified server-class hardware. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for containers

Comes with built-in management tools for containers (Atomic CLI, Cockpit) and a container runtime in the form of Docker engine. See More

Slackware

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Top Con

Steep learning curve

Top Pro

Stable, simple , BSD style

Uses stable, plain-vanilla packages from upstream. See More

TallHimeros's Experience

Slackware is super stable and whilst versions are released sporadically security update are available for several prior versions. Pat does a great job managing this with a small core of trusted helpers. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Point or Rolling(Slackware - current)

Based On:Softlanding Linux System

Package Manager:Pkgtool

Init-System:SysVinit

Top Con

Very slow release cycle

Hasn't updated in 3+ years. See More

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Con

Extremely esoteric installer

The installation program for Slackware almost always results in a plethora of unnecessary packages installed on the resulting system. See More

Top Pro

Package Management

Uses standard tar archives with shell scripting as packages. See More

Top Con

Dependency issues

When it comes to dependencies, Slackware shows more issues than many other distros. See More

Top Pro

One more distro which is init based

Some users don't like to install systemd based distros because they increase booting and processing speed. See More

Top Pro

Ideal to learn more of Linux

Follows the original Linux roots. It still sees Linux as a free clone of UNIX so the distribution tries to be UNIX-like. See More

Fedora

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Top Pro

Base for RHEL (Industry Standard)

Backed up by biggest linux kernel contributor - RedHat See More

Top Con

Not for beginners

It is not a user-friendly distro like ubuntu, PCLos. You will be required to learn a lot of commands even for simple activities. My mother (85 yrs old) have been using Fedora for 3 years with absolutely no problem. 5 years ago I switched from Ubuntu to Fedora for my kids' sake since it was easier for them to use. See More

IndustriousAmeNoKoyane's Experience

Using as home server and, while a bit complex, finding information to help install servers you need is not difficult. Once up and running, it's rock solid. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Point (6 Months)

Based On:Independent

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, DNF package manager

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Updating to new release can be problematic

While there are a few tools on offer that will upgrade an old Fedora release to the newest, there can often be problems with these methods. Some that may not even crop up at first but will show later down the road. Being that upgrading can be an issue, it can be exacerbated by the fact that Fedora updates every six month, which means twice a year there is a risk of completely borking ones install. See More

Top Pro

Backed by one of the biggest Linux kernel contributors

Fedora is backed by RedHat, the 2nd biggest Linux kernel contributor in the world. Using a distribution made by RedHat means that it will be fine-tuned to work as efficiently as possible since it's made by the same people who work extensively on the kernel and know its ins and outs. See More

Top Con

No support

Top Pro

Fast and stable updates

Top Pro

Focuses on innovation

By using bleeding edge software, Fedora allows for innovation to take place by testing out things which other distros are not willing to try due to fears of having instability issues. See More

Top Pro

Very good integration with Flatpak and Snap Packages

Top Pro

Spins and Labs

Spins are images with a different WM/DE, labs are filled with a specific theme of packages. spins.fedoraproject.org labs.fedoraproject.org See More

Top Pro

Frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints

Fedora has a relatively short life cycle: version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2 and with approximately 6 months between versions this means that a version of Fedora is supported for approximately 13 months. This promotes leading-edge software because it frees developers from some backward compatibility restraints. See More

Gentoo

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Top Pro

Total customizability

Top Con

Not beginner-friendly

You have to read a lot of instructions to start, even if you are familiar with Linux. Furthermore, as you have to configure the kernel and init system, expect some boot failures at beginning. See More

PoliteSilenus's Experience

It provides best flexibility for your server workload. USE flags help to maintain desired balance between package stability/optionality and using of MASKs and KEYWORDs help you out to choose/filter any package you want. Layman repositories also extend functionality, but maybe not proper for server workload. See More

Top Pro

Allows to be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. See More

Top Con

Customized package installation can take a long time and cause installation failures

The Gentoo package management system allows you to configure what compilation flags packages should support - i.e. specific processor flag support (SSE, SSE2, etc.), -O1, -O2, -O3 optimization, etc. If you accept one of the default flags, Gentoo downloads binaries from the server. However, if you decide to optimise, it can and will download all source packages and start compiling ALL the programs and libraries on your system. If your chosen flags don't work with a particular library, installation will fail. See More

Top Pro

Security

Top Pro

Performance

By having more control over installed packages and services, you can avoid unneccesary softwares. Furthermore, because of source-based packages installation, you are able to set custom compilation flags to produce fastest possible binaries for your hardware. See More

Arch

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Top Con

Rolling release

Not suitable for production, an update can ruin the whole system. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Rolling

Based On:Independent

Package Manager:Pacman

Init-System:Systemd

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

Top Pro

Fast and minimal with low hardware requirements

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

Arch only holds your hand a little bit of the way. While documentation is great, you are expected to know what you're doing. The result is that when you find the solution for a problem on a forum or elsewhere, the response may be completely over your head. If you're not well-versed in Linux, what would be a minor issue on another distribution can become a drawn-out research project on Arch, as you learn all the inner workings of the operating system, until you understand it well enough to solve your problems yourself. See More

Top Pro

User-configurable

Top Con

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

Top Con

Fragile packages

Updating an Arch system is always a gamble. The problem could be as simple as a package having a bug causing a program to crash on start or it may be something bigger like the WiFi or Bluetooth no longer working. There is also the slight chance the system may not even boot at all after a large update. If the user does not plan to read the forums weekly/daily or update fairly often, things can go wrong very fast. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd Party Installers

There are extremely helpful 3rd party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere). See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch then you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very usefull. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Arch Linux follows a rolling release model, which allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

openSUSE Leap

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Ubuntu

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Top Pro

Lots of support

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

Top Con

Tracking

As of 18.04 the package ubuntu-report tracks the users' system info. See More

Specs

Release Schedule:Point (5 Year LTS / 6 Month Releases)

Based On:Debian Stable(core) Testing/Unstable(universe/multiverse)

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager, Snap Store

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

Top Con

Canonical does not respect Ubuntu users' preferences

In 2012 it became impossible in Ubuntu to move the close-window-button back to the upper-right corner of the window, where it always was before. To the questions of their users Canonical replied that they know better than users where it would be convenient for users to have the close-window-button. See More

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

Lots of support for hardware, lots of pre-installed software, and a smooth install process means less time downloading drivers, less time digging through configuration files, and less time deciding on software to use just to get up and running. It also means less time digging through forums looking for support. See More

Top Con

Tends to do its own thing

Ubuntu has a user interface that is specific to Ubuntu and is now working on its own display server. It also tends to have configuration that is done slightly different (and arguably more beginner friendly) than elsewhere. So while this is a great Linux distribution in its own right, it might not be the first choice for someone wanting to learn Linux itself. See More

Top Pro

Company behind it

This means that the system must run well, otherwise they will lose money. There is no better incentive! See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default GNOME desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low end systems and older hardware. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. See More

Top Pro

Stable

It‘s one of the most stable Linux Distros. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated software center

The Ubuntu Software Center offers a GUI interface for installing new apps which is extremely easy and welcoming for beginners to Linux. But it should not be used by more advanced users since the method of installing through the terminal is much faster and easier after one is used to it. See More

Top Pro

Perfect for collaboration on open source projects

This is probably the best option when collaborating on open source projects in hardware. This is mostly because packages and tools are readily available via software center. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity

Ubuntu is designed to be used by everyday people. Because of that, Ubuntu has tried hard to make a user interface that's intuitive and looks pleasant and clean. See More

Top Pro

Wide range of software out of the box

The default apps available in Ubuntu cover the gamut of most anyone's needs. From music, video or office applications Ubuntu has an app that will cover the users needs. See More

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (2 years)

This allows for users to always have a new supported release available without long unkown wait times in between. See More

openSUSE Tumbleweed

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Specs

Release Schedule:Rolling

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Init-System:Systemd

Kubuntu

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Specs

Release Schedule:Point (follows ubuntu releases)

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Init-System:Systemd

Zowe

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Arch Linux Testing

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