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I've been a user of Arch for the past several years and I've always been a huge proponent of the rolling release model. When I first picked up Arch, it was because I needed more modern versions of several tools than were packaged with Fedora or Ubuntu and Arch was a really easy way to get those updates. No more waiting 6 months for the next release cycle to get a new piece of software (yes, I know, "compile it yourself" is always an option--but, I've personally found that nothing destabilizes my system like adding a bunch of software from outside the package manager).

I find my own argument somewhat less compelling today. With systems like Flatpak gaining traction, we're seeing a trend towards separating the Operating System (and I'm thinking more of the overall foundations of a complete, modern system, not just OS = Linux kernel) from the applications for that operating system. Existing package managers handling the OS while Flatpak, AppImage, Snap, etc. become how applications are installed and managed seems to be a good direction.

To be clear, the divide today is far from perfect and we still run into the "Are you running the Flatpak or the distro version of X?" There are also compatibility issues to be worked out. All that said, I do still find the story of "a stable OS with up-to-date applications" compelling.

discuss

bravetraveler|3 years ago

Even without Flatpak and the ilk, Fedora is a great place to be.

The packaging tooling/infrastructure makes this 'just build from source' thing very 'make Fedora yours'.

COPR and fedpkg mean that it's probable that someone has built the thing you want, the same way Fedora builds their stuff.

coldblues|3 years ago

>but, I've personally found that nothing destabilizes my system like adding a bunch of software from outside the package manager

That's why you should be creating your own PKGBUILD.

bcrescimanno|3 years ago

It's so rarely an issue on Arch. Between the massive official repos and the incredibly comprehensive AUR, I've only needed to do it a couple of times.

My initial comment was about needing to do that on non-arch systems. I've created my own RPM and DEB packages in the past as well; but, at least when I did it years ago, it wasn't as effective as a PKGBUILD on arch.