A lot has been said here but I will say that I have used most common distributions of Linux and I would say without a doubt Arch is my favorite Linux distro. Debian is a distant second. I love how Arch is bleeding edge and so minimalistic. You don't get all this useless dependencies when installing a minimal system. Debian installed everything and the kicthen sink for me but Arch is just as clean as can be.

The installer is easy as cake. Don't let the old text based look scare you.

1 - Boot from netinst disk
2 - login as root
3 - run /arch/setup
4 - follow the prompts in order

Easy as can be!!!

They have an amazing Wiki & Forum community!

1 members found this post helpful.

OK

I'm finally gettin to the 2 installs
But I noticed that the archbang install pics show using a XFS filesystem

Do I have to use XFS, as I prefer ext2, ext3?

I'm asking for both reg Arch and for Archbang as I am installing both?
thanks

Oh, the archbang 2.00 RC1 runs fine off my usb and is really fast

You certainly don't with plain old Arch. You have the normal array of choices for filesystems. I have not tested Archbang, but it would seem almost certain that you would have the normal choices there as well.

1 members found this post helpful.

thanks just needed to know...

I used 'ext4' mostly.

/dev/sda1 = /boot (ext2)
/dev/sda2 = swap
/dev/sda3 = /var (ext4)
/dev/sdb1 = /home (ext4)

Just check out my tutorial on Installing and setting up Archlinu, That should pretty much walk you through the installation and setup of Archlinux.

1 members found this post helpful.

Oh very nice securitybreach!

Thanks alot for that!

No problem. I hope it helped!!

I cheated a bit at first securitybreach by installing archbang rc1 & now rc2
in order to get familiar with Arch

But, I do this with most base distro's as I have adhd or something
and usually just start doing stuff rather than reading alot

I generally learn by imiatition & modification
I still havent learned bash,etc can make scripts,etc on my own
just from memory as I dont keep notes either, another sign of adhd

I am like anti OCD
with so many distros installed it gets crazy

like, last night I installed Calculate Linux Scratch to get familiar with Gentoo
thats usually how I do distros
Install a customized version, then the vanilla

Oh ok. Well if you have any issues with the installation, just post here and I will respond accordantly. I am subscribed to this thread so I will see the responses.

awesome I'm sure I'll have some questions
thanks again

No problem.

I recommend when you install, use the 'netinst' ISO. Much cleaner and easier to install Arch Linux! I will say that their Wiki (www.wiki.archlinux.org) is the best Wiki I have seen in the Linux community. I will say learning to install Arch with 'Software RAID' took me 2 months due to scattered information...

Well I have personally never the net-install but it is not really different from the core iso. The net install just downloads the same exact packages that the Core has, not really a difference.

Just seems nice to download the packages on the core CD but at their latest revision rather than having to do it post install. I basically downloads all the latest packages from net rather than dated / vulnerable packages from a disk. Seems like a win-win situation unless bandwidth connectivity is an issue...the I would recommend the 'core' ISO.