Arch Linux vs Debian GNU/Linux

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.

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.

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux.

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.

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.

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages.

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.

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.

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.

You can tailor the system to your needs.

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.

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

The default and community repo of Arch Linux are so vast, that there is barely any need for additional software sources. And if there is, the additional software can be added to AUR, which results in the need actually growing the Arch repos.

Learn about Arch, learn about Linux. What works for Arch, works for many other distros too.

Arch Linux is actually incredibly simple. It's really just a partition scheme, package manager, Linux kernel, file system, systemd and the bare minimum of utilities needed to easily set up your hardware.

This makes it super simple to build your desired system using binary packages because there no bloat getting in your way when installing or configuring packages.

Arch gives great insight in the inner workings of operating systems, computers and data manipulation.

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks.

Upgrade once a day, once a week, once a month,... three times a day... automate it, upgrade manually, add packages to the ignore list.

If you like to tinker with things and see how they work you don't get much better than arch linux unless you commit to building your own kernel and using flags manually when installing your packages.

Doesn't limit you in terms of desktop environments or graphical servers (X, Wayland).

To basically keep your Arch setup up and running, it takes very little to barely any maintenance.

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide!

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

If you need something, you should install it. It has nothing as default and you can build your system from zero.

Out of the box Arch comes with great hardware support.

See experts working on the packages and upgrades. Given Arch splits the load among people who care and have the experience, the overall setup is very stable and reliable, even though very broad too.

The comments about issues with upgrades are over-exaggerated.

Those comments assume that : A) They happen often, B) you are using a specific package with an issue, C) that package maintainers can't release a patch to the package that will work around the issue for you, and that D) Manual intervention or system recovery from such issues is hard to fix.

On average once or twice a year a user may have to cut and paste some commands in the terminal to fix an issue, but that's about it. Additionally any system recovery required from such missed interventions is easy, just follow the wiki and make a live USB if your using a desktop or laptop.

Always works. No matter if you upgrade 7 or 700 packages.

Providers only provide the basic system and do a great job doing so. While with AUR people who actually use the packages, provide and maintain them. They CARE about making them work.

Unlike other some distributions, it's super simple to review the packages you download on the official arch repos or arch user repository.

Even a default Arch setup offers great security with the minimum number of open ports and very little information on the system for outsiders.

Arch Linux provides a minimal user experience and tons of packages, which means that ‘ricing’ (customising your desktop to it’s limits) will be unrestrictive and you won’t have to worry about bloating your system.

With its vast repos, Arch offers tons of applications for all kinds of use.

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf.

Since you do everything by hand and a LOT of it, you actually learn very useful things even for other distros.

Arch-based distros, or even Arch installers, often use unsigned repositories.

Despite being rolling release Arch Linux lets you be flexible about your update policy. If distro repos moved forward, but you don't want to update, you can temporarily switch to Arch Linux Archive, which stores repo snapshots across time. Later, when you're ready to update, you switch back to bleeding edge.

The official install script has the "Additional packages" option, which lets you choose additional packages that won't be installed from the terminal. This is helpful for custom configurations (e.g. if you wanted to take advantage of web development) because it is compatible with most packages from the AUR. This also diminishes the need for manual installation with Pacman.

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.

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment or debian specific modifications or customisations, 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.

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.

Debian has a Stable branch, where packages are thoroughly tested before release. Furthermore Debian is know to be the definition of stable when it comes to production systems.

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

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.

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 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free.

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 it's so commonly used.

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

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

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

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths.

The Debian project is one of the biggest open source projects with over 5000 active contributors.

You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups.

Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project.

Unlike other distributions that just extract their Live image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation.

Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not.

Depending how it is configured debconf does the most of the hard work for you and only asks you with configuration /file conflicts.

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package.

Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports.

It is possible to rebuild the entire system and optimize it for your hardware (of course, it is not as detailed as Gentoo's USE flags).

The most Linux distros have one or two stages before a release, but Debian has five before a new stable version is released (experimental > unstable > testing > code-freeze/bug hunting > stable).

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

Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression.

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.

Debian stable does not update a lot and instead provides stability and well tested softwares. You don't get distracted by every shiny new stuff that comes out, and focus on what matters: productivity and reliability of your system.

Stable gets backported software from here.

If you haven't used Linux for a long time, say 5-10 years, it's a great distro in which you can quickly get in the boat again. You don't have to worry about falling back. Everything is in its place.

But has quite a few bugs from 2016-2017, apparently for long term.