A friend and myself are looking to start an Arch based Linux distro but we have a few questions. We look forward to having some great discussions and thanks for the help.
-Where do we start?
-What would the tek community like to see in an Arch based distro?
Since I am not a coder, as well as a Linux newb, I don't know where to start.
I would like to see it focused mainly on user-friendliness. Linux is infamous for not being user friendly. Unless that changes, Linux will NEVER take over the desktop. Would like to see the basic things put first, and the nerd stuff put second. Like instead of opening the terminal for updates, maybe a thing like windows update where it is run by a program in the background. Again, would like to see it be USER FRIENDLY!
Edit: BTW, would love to test some early builds when they come out :)
I would like to see a very small Arch distro that comes out of the box with just a WM and some stuff like that ready to go out of the box. Pretty much kept very minimal and has just enough to be usable out of the box like I said. Would be great to keep on a USB stick for a quick install to PCs and shit. Would take care of the time consuming part of installing Arch.
Thanks for the feedback and we plan to make this distro very user friendly, but about the background updates... At least from my knowledge everything that is installed in Linux must be given user access. This means doing automatic background updates that install themselves is close impossible. If we did give the update manager root access it would compromise security and stability making it non-user friendly. Although we can set it up kind of like Ubuntu, to notify you when you have updates. At that point all you would have to do is click on the notification and enter you password. Does that form of system sound user friendly in your opinion, if not, what else do you think would work?
Actually there are dozens of good user friendly distributions depending on the definition of "user friendly". Something that some people find user friendly is user hostile for some other group of people. That's why most user friendly distributions try to keep as many configuration options as possible.
If I can suggest user friendly distribution that suits for most common users check elementaryOS.
Awesome you guys thanks for the feedback and please keep it coming. We're in the process of developing a road map just to give you an idea of what the distro will look like in the future. With that though I would like to say that the road map should be posted within the next day or so and nothing on it will be final. I would love to hear what you think about it and what changes should be made. One last thing I would also like some opinions on an internal level such as what file system we should use, ETC...
To Chuckn2x: We'll keep the the problem you have with fglrx in mind and see if we can't find a fix for it.
A friend and myself are looking to start an Arch based Linux distro but we have a few questions. We look forward to having some great discussions and thanks for the help. Where do we start? What would the tek community like to see in an Arch based distro?
You start by checking http://distrowatch.com/ and thinking what you could do better than what the 100 best distributions already do or don't do.
Then you choose base to build off from the distribution that already does most of the things that you want your distribution to be. Then you fork the existing stable release of the said distribution and start modifying it to your own needs. However your question implies that you know nothing about how GNU/Linux distributions work in-general. So forget about forking Arch.
That's why I'd recommend you start with just something really basic. Try building Gentoo or LFS first. And forget about making "own distribution". I don't want to discourage you guys but making distribution on your own is hard work.
If you want to know how you can build your own distribution then you need to understand how GNU/Linux distributions work. And fastest way to towards that goal is to learn to build complete GNU/Linux system from scratch aka. LFS. Experienced users probably can pull this off in a couple of hours but inexperienced guys probably will spend few days building it. LFS is not a distribution. LFS is a set of tools and documentation so you can build your own distribution using only the upstream sources. Patches and other stuff needs to be applied manually.
That process can be lots of for for somebody who has never done it. Gentoo is also pretty good for the purpose when you do it from the Stage1 (which technically doesn't exist any more but you can still do it). Gentoo automates lots of steps into simple commands anyone can do and the building complete Linux system can be done in just under 6 hours (depending on CPU speed and user's ability to follow the documentation).
If you want more automation there are distributions like Arch, Source Mage and many others. But using them kind of defeats the intention of "building your own distribution". If you just want more customisations it makes more sense to download Debian Jessie and then do apt-src and build completely own build of Debian with all your own stuff preinstalled into it.
And if that sounds too difficult operation you guys could also do something like the custom OpenSuSe build with SuSe Studio. You can just do few clicks, wait few minutes, and download medium in any format (incl. various virtual machine HDD formats) you want and then install or boot it.
The most important rule in this activity is that you're not doing this for others. You're doing this for yourself. And if others like what you're doing, they'll use your stuff and want to support your efforts.
I would look at YaST it is a GUI control panel for OpenSuse. Adding something like that to Arch would be very cool.
There are some pretty good GUIs for Arch's package manager so look at that. Rigo the GUI for Sabayon's package manager is is really good looking so take a peak.
I wouldn't concern yourself too much about which desktop interface to use because that can be swapped out by the user.
Tools are so important give the user easy to use but powerful tools and everything else will fall into place.
On the installer side look to Anaconda and the OpenSuse installer they are some of the best.
Installer scripts for GPU drivers would be neat but not necessary.
Hopeakettu thank you for your post it was very informative. My friend and I have both done some work with LFS in the past and it's nice. Also My friend and I feel that in many ways Arch Linux is a great distro with huge potential. Both internally and externally we will be making some changes hoping to provide the best user experience possible for both new and experienced Linux users. Also I agree with you a hundred and ten percent when you say that we are doing this for ourselves. On the other hand my friend and I also feel that the community should have a say as to what goes into the distro. The reason for this is because we're confident that this distro will meet our needs in the long run.
Taco Bell I have used YaST before and it's absolutely fantastic in my opinion. As far as the GUI goes we plan on creating our own using QT but this decision is by no means final. We will look into your suggestions for the installer as well, thanks for the help.
Sorry about the late response I haven't been home but that's an interesting project. At the moment we're still going to attempt to build a GUI using QT purely out interest and from a user standpoint. We're talking about what kind of installer to use so we looked at Anaconda and it's not bad. Although Antergos uses a really nice installer called Cnchi so there are still decisions to be made. Whatever we end up going with we'll give you the option of several different desktop environments to choose from including our own in house.