LinuxQuestions.org - ArchLinux and its alleged difficulties

I've made a quick WEB search regarding ArchLinux and it looks to me there is nothing specially difficult about it - <<mod edit:For example, the learning curve with libraries.>>

Evidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Linux :

Quote:

Design and principles

Arch is largely based around binary packages. Packages are targeted for i686 and x86-64 microprocessors to assist performance on modern hardware.

Package system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Li...age_management :

Quote:

Pacman
Main article: Pacman (package manager)

All packages are managed using the Pacman package manager. Pacman handles package installation, upgrades, removal and downgrades, and features automatic dependency resolution. The packages for Arch Linux are obtained from the Arch Linux package tree and are optimized for either i686 or x86-64 architectures. Arch Linux is primarily based on binary packages in the tar.gz and tar.xz format.[13]

, so the needed files can be trivially extracted.

Actual packages: http://www.archlinux.org/packages/ ->
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/?s...gged=&limit=50 ->
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/co...4/lib32-glibc/ :

Quote:

GNU C Library (32 Bit)

;
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/co...ib32-gcc-libs/ :

Quote:

The GNU Compiler Collection

.

File list of 'lib32-glibc': http://www.archlinux.org/packages/co...4/lib32-glibc/ - as it should be.

...

Had to build 'xz', now that I've downloaded and unpacked http://www.lividpenguin.lkams.kernel...686.pkg.tar.xz , I can confirm that, for example,

Code:

file /home/sergei/junk/glibc-2.11.1-2-i686/lib/libresolv-2.11.1.so

/home/sergei/junk/glibc-2.11.1-2-i686/lib/libresolv-2.11.1.so: ELF 32-bit LSB shared object, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.18, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

, i.e. ArchLinux indeed has 32 bits libraries.

So, as I see it, there should be no more difficulties in building 32 bit applications under ArchLinux than under any other Linux.