Arch Linux

[Arlia Janet]

I've heard high praise for Arch Linux recently. I've really hated the way that ubuntu and mac os have been moving the past few years, so the idea of switching to Arch has been tempting.
I've been playing with ArchBang via virtualbox on my ageing Snow Leopard macbook and have had a few problems. The pacman update (pacman -Syy) usually fails or causes my virtual machine to crash. I can get photoshop to work, but the color scheme is skewed from "reality" and I can't fix it. All colors are off which is a game breaker for me because photoshop accounts for about 50% of my computer use. Finally, I tried to install it for real using Boot Camp to partition the hard drive, but I can't seem to figure out how to set up my boot partitions in accordance with rEFIt without getting a giant question mark when I boot up the macbook.
Any advice... apart from trying other distros or buying a PC? I understand that the arch wiki is good, but I have a hard time following it especially when command line prompts start failing. Thank you in advanced.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Unfortunately, my linux experience leans heavily in debian based distros and a little to redhat. Arch, and its ilk archbang, are ones ive been meaning to try though.


That said, i've done a cursory look into the matter and the general response is photoshop and arch dont mix very well. On the other hand, while you may not like Ubuntu i read that potatochop works great in a buntu wine environment. Im not a fan of the unity interface so when i do need to use it i just apt-get gnome or kde desktop environment and all is dunky hory. If still ubuntu isnt wanted there's always my long standing favorite debian distro: Mint. Mint also tested gold for wine potatopchop use.

Random kweshtion: have you installed vbox guest additions? Doubt it would help with the color issue, but still good to do nonetheless. No idea why your pacman is flippin out when trying to access a repository. Hunch tells me its a configuration error, but seeing as my arch experience is zilch im not much help on that one. I'd ask one of my instructors that is a huge arch supporter..but weekend and all.

[Arlia Janet]

I never tried Mint, but I may give it a go. I like a lot of things about ubuntu (like how easy it is to install even on the macbook), but unity and and the amazon ads and a bunch of little things makes it hard for me to support it.

[synkr0nized]

I don't know much about using Arch, either.
But I do know about pushing Unity aside in favour of Gnome or KDE. Recently, when my Ubuntu box's OS drive failed, I decided to either pick a different distro or finally move on from Ubuntu 10.-whatever. I had avoided the latter due to Unity, but it's not that difficult to essentially disable and move on without using it. Or, if a person still likes Ubuntu but really can't stand it, there's always Xubuntu.

Mint was one of the first alternatives I looked at, also, as it's gotten solid reviews lately, at least from what I have seen -- it's worth noting I am not as huge into keeping abreast of this stuff as I may seem -- and read.


In any case, perhaps, if you had the patience, something to do would be to set up Photoshop in a VM with different distros [i.e. install an OS, set up Photoshop, try it out, wipe the VM, move on to another] to see which might have the best color reproduction and levels for you. I don't know the specifics, but as I understand it the Linux landscape isn't very standardized with respect to color management and fonts, at least relative to OS X and Windows.

[Arlia Janet]

I have installed Mint, it's interesting in a clean, friendly sort of way. Having trouble getting Photoshop and colors working correctly.
Another question, I can't seem to install arch completely onto the harddrive of my macbook without having to keep a small mac os partition. When I do the auto iinstall on the whole drive, the computer won't recognize the linux partition and will not load the operating system... Maybe I'll wait a few years for a tablet that can run a proper photoshop...

[shiney]

I run gentoo, but it's not very user friendly in the setup process.

[Arlia Janet]

Hi Shiney! Long time no see. I didn't realize you were a linux-user. I've tried Gentoo on a really old PC a few years ago. It seemed frustrating to set up, but people I know who use it say it's great once the initial headache is finished. Arch linux, I believe, is falling into that same camp.