What are the best Arch Linux based distributions?

Question

14

Options
Considered

305

User
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6 hrs

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 12 OptionsWhy?

Best Arch Linux based distributions	Price	Default Desktop Environment	Release Schedule
90 Manjaro	-	XFCE, KDE, Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, i3, LXDE/lxqt, and MATE	Rolling Release
87 Antergos	-	Cinnamon / GNOME 3 / KDE / MATE / Openbox / Xfce	Rolling Release
-- Anarchy Linux	-	–	–
-- Arch Linux	-	CLI	Rolling
-- Artix Linux	-	Lxqt	Rolling release

See Full List

11 Other Options Considered

Antergos

Top Pro

Close to normal Arch

Very similar to Arch, but still user-friendly. See More

Top Con

Package popularity is not visible in Antergos repositories

Small issue, but would be nice to see package popularity in Antergos repos, just like it is visible for AUR. packages. Antergos with AUR gives access practically to all possible packages, so popularity could help in this sea of packages. See More

StrongUlanji's Experience

Easy and quick install, using Mate, Plasma, Gnome, and Openbox, before settling on Lxqt. All easy to install, use and remove. Responsive upgrades. A++ See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon / GNOME 3 / KDE / MATE / Openbox / Xfce

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Based On:Arch

Init-System:Systemd

See All Specs

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

It can visit AUR to build packages. See More

Top Con

Rolling release problems

Rolling release is quite a pain sometimes. You might face some problem with a buggy application since you always get the latest version. This problem is a little bit solved by Manjaro distro where applications are tested but updates are slower than usual. See More

ShrewdBoreas's Experience

Easy to install without CLI. Runs solid as a rock. Little resources used. Excellent Repositories between Antergos & Arch's AUR. See More

Top Pro

Offers choice of desktop environment on installation

Ability to choose your preferred desktop environment on installation. See More

Top Con

The installer breaks often

The installer, cnchi breaks all the time. It's very buggy. See More

IntuitiveAirmid's Experience

Easy to install, great distro repository along with AUR's. Not hard to use at all, and is rock solid stable. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Antergos is easier to install than Arch Linux. It offers a GUI over Arch's CLI-only installation, and it does some things for you automatically that eliminates the need for manually installing software like in Arch. See More

Top Con

Installation can easily go wrong - no separate /home partition by default

DependableTezcatlipoca's Experience

Perfect See More

Top Pro

Rolling release model make is easy to keep apps on updated versions

Antergos is a rolling release distribution (as it's based on Arch Linux). Your entire system, from the base OS components to the applications that you install, will receive updates as they are released upstream—with only a minimal delay to ensure stability. See More

Top Con

May have swap problems if poorly configured

HelpfulThallo's Experience

easy install, very stable and with plenty of software to choose from. See More

Top Pro

Surprisingly stable Linux desktop

From popular distros of rolling and standard releases, compared to Debian (stable) and Arch, Antergos stability rocks. Debian is stable, however, it's with old packages and Arch. The only thing that broke it, so far, was compiz-manjaro (C++ 0.9 branch) from AUR, but compiz in Antergos repositories is 0.8 and it is working flawlessly. See More

Top Con

Abstracts some core principles that are needed to maintain an Arch installation

SuaveEshmun's Experience

nearly two years as a primary OS See More

Top Pro

Very fast and stable system

Everything runs at the speed of light. Antergos is super responsive and programs/apps run effortlessly. See More

CharmingShullat's Experience

good See More

Top Pro

Nice theme across all environments

Top Pro

Works on any environment

Straight from the official website. See More

Top Pro

Offers minimal ISO download

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Top Pro

It comes with every essential utility pre-installed

Top Pro

First Linux desktop that makes Windows look bad

Antergos has very nice default themes (KDE/Plasma and Gnome/GTK), which combined with Compiz 0.8, makes Windows looks sad. Antergos can even compete with Windows in regards to stability. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release model make it easy to keep apps on updated versions

Antergos is a rolling release distribution (as it's based on Arch Linux). Your entire system, from the base OS components to the applications that you install, will receive updates as they are released upstream—with only a minimal delay to ensure stability. See More

See All

Anarchy Linux

Top Pro

The end result is a well configured standard Archlinux system

FunnyRongo's Experience

Win-win. I've had a long love-hate relationship with Antergos. Loved the Arch side, loved the quick install, hated the Antergos packaging (superfluous, out of date, sometimes broken packages). Anarchy is that, without the annoyance of Antergos packaging. See More

Top Pro

Saves a lot of time to set up an Archlinux system

Once you had your experience to set up an Archlinux system manually from scratch this distro saves a lot of setup time. See More

schlaumeier's Experience

I have used it to set up several archlinux systems. Works like a charm. See More

Top Pro

Many preconfigured Desktop environments supported

PopularPeklenc's Experience

very flexible installer See More

Top Pro

Full access to Arch repositories as well as Aur

Top Pro

Everything you need in a small and fast Arch distro

Top Pro

Looks good by default

See All

Arch Linux

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

DaringBelobog's Experience

Super, fastest and no hectic with less memory usage can make simple desktop environment having powerful and strong comparison with other Linux. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:CLI

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:Systemd

Package manager:pacman

See All Specs

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

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

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 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

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

See All

ArchLab Linux Minimo

Top Pro

Looks good out of the box

The distro uses Openbox by default. It's small, fast, and looks cool. It's similar to the BunsenLabs distro. See More

NeighborlyAmphiaraus's Experience

Fast, easy to use and looks good. See More

Top Pro

Not only Openbox

It comes out of the box configured to use with wm like i3, bspwm, awesome, xfce. See More

Hikky's Experience

The installation process is quite easy and looks great out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Installation similar to Anarchy

ArchLabs is using a very similar installer to that of Anarchy's, you can't change as much, but if polished Openbox and/or i3 are what you're after, ArchLabs might be for you. See More

See All

Kaos

Top Pro

Clean UI

Top Con

x86_64 support only

KaOs is strictly for 64bits only. No packages for other architectures in repositories. See More

Top Pro

Designated KDE distro

Top Con

Not Arch based

KaOS uses pacman but it is not ARCH based. Some AUR packages work, but not all, and pkgbuilds have to be modified for some, and depends have to be installed if not already and some are not in the KaOS repositories. So you have to know what you are doing. The developer does not support any apps that aren't in the KaOS repositories, so you are on your own when it comes to using the AUR. Newer versions often break AUR apps whether intentionally or not. Getting help is not a really good experience. It's a beautiful use of KDE though. See More

See All

ArcoLinux

Top Pro

Easy to install

Top Con

Small development team

ExpertMorta's Experience

This is a beautifully themed distribution and great fun to work with. See More

NeighborlyAmphiaraus's Experience

Bloated and slow See More

See All

Archbang

Top Pro

Lightweight

Archbang is a pretty lightweight distro. The ISO is well below a CD. It uses Openbox as a Window Manager by default, without having the need to use a desktop environment which would only bloat the OS further. See More

Top Con

No sense of direction

Archbang frequently goes through seismic shifts, where most of the basic setup gets completely replaced between releases. This is usually not a bad thing, as the setup is rather minimal anyway, so with some knowledge it's easy enough to configure everything to one's own liking, and the experiments eventually lead to a better distro. But it can also be disorienting and annoying to do a fresh install and barely recognize the distro. See More

kaqqao's Experience

A minimally preconfigured Arch. Gets you going fast, but still completely under your control. See More

Top Pro

Small but friendly and responsive community

In stark contrast to the maddening noise of certain communities where inane questions drown out any real conversation, Archbang's community is tiny and quiet, but approachable and comprised of seasoned experts. See More

See All

Archman Linux

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Apricity OS

Manjaro KDE Arch Rolling Release

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