Arch features pacman, which handles binary system package management and works seamlessly with the Arch Build System.Both ship with ports-like systems, and, like *BSD, both provide a base environment to build upon.While Arch uses a rolling release system, CRUX has more or less yearly releases.CRUX uses BSD-style init scripts, whereas Arch uses systemd.CRUX is a lightweight distribution that focuses on the KISS principle.The Arch base and all packages are only compiled for the x86_64 architecture. Source-based distributions are highly portable, giving the advantage of controlling and compiling the entire OS and applications for a particular machine architecture and usage scheme, with the disadvantage of the time-consuming nature of source compilation.

Community ports that support architectures other than x86_64 can be found listed among the Arch-based distributions. In all of the following, only Arch Linux is compared with other distributions. Although reviews and descriptions can be useful, first-hand experience is invariably the best way to compare distributions.įor a more complete comparison, see Wikipedia:Comparison of operating systems and Wikipedia:Comparison of Linux distributions. The summaries that follow are brief descriptions that may help a person decide if Arch Linux will suit their needs. This page attempts to draw a comparison between Arch Linux and other popular GNU/Linux distributions and UNIX-like operating systems.

Debian testing