Antergos — Too Much Hype
Antergos Linux is a Arch Linux based distribution, formerly known as Cinnarch. Arch Linux is an intermediate level distribution meant for people who want the latest and greatest software and operating system with no strings attached.
Personally I feel BSD is the best operating system — FreeBSD being the flag bearer. But even with friendly TrueOS or DragonFly, it can quite a mouthful for some. Linux is the next choice and more popular. For last 15 years my Linux distribution of choice is Arch Linux, nobody understands KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) better then Arch developers. It is minimalist, simplistic and never hinders (comes in the way).
Recently I came to know about Antergos with there was too much enthusiasm/hype and I thought of giving it a try… And thus I present my agonies
Cnchi — A modern, flexible system installer for Linux
Maybe I am getting old and don’t really understand what qualifies for modern and flexible these days, but I am certain Cnchi is neither… It is just a cheap knock off installer which gets in the way…
Cnchi forces you to get all the software from the internet during install and that too in old fashioned client-server mode.
In Today's world even Microsoft has understood the importance of distributed updates and by default shares the updates with other machines over the same network.
I have been doing this for at least at decade with Arch using various techniques and now PacServe is the mainstay. PacServe allows to easily share pacman packages between computers, and is part of Trusted Developer Arch Repository. If I would design a distribution that forces user to get all the packages from internet, my sanity will command me to enable PacServe, alas it is not there with Antergos developers.
Whats wrong with Dumping the packages from installer?
Nothing, The installer image boots up in Gnome and thus should at least give me a Gnome Installation without any need to download the 1.2 GB of data over the internet.
Arch is based on Rolling Release model, and it seems like Antergos is based on Kicking and Stumbling Release model. Ubuntu forces to use the old packages and Antergos forces to use the so-called latest packages. In both the cases user does not have a choice! Rolling Release means that I can roll over to the latest versions, not kicked towards them and stumble on outdated packages
What is worse is the outdated packages in Antergos Repositories — Vivaldi for example. Complete and latest Vivaldi is available of Herecura repository and recommended by Arch, But Antergos choose to keep outdated and incomplete version on their repository. And there and many more such examples.
Any Modern Software know the data hazard and a synchronicity. There are steps that can be executed asynchronously so that it does not waste user time and block other processes. Cnchi plays God and ignores the inherent asynchronous nature of tasks as seen in mirror selection and user creation.
Mirror selection should be done in the background instead of a modal dialog making the user wait. And why exactly “mirror selection” required before partitioning?
Same goes with User creation — Why can’t Cnchi load the repository info and prepare the list of packages while the user in inputting the information?
And this brings me to the Dark Ages of Software — reboot. If you cancel the installer midway, you cannot start the installer again, it forces you to reboot. Is cleaning up so hard or are we so much in love with reset button?
Cnchi is just an installer over the base Arch Linux
I like the Raspian way of Operating System installation — the perfect solution. Just copy the latest image on storage device and boot. On the first boot the partition is expanded to fill up all the storage space and reboot in a fully functional live environment
If I created an installer over Arch Linux, I would have opted for the same mechanism. Now the installer media can cache the latest packages at every boot and keep the release rolling.
Cnchi could have stored all the latest packages in /var/cache/pacman instead of /install/var/cache/pacman. This would have ensured that next time I install the operating system, I am not kicked to fetch packages from the internet.
Cnchi has option for local cache available, but it is inaccessible from the GUI installer, you have to pass a special command line option from the terminal.
How hard is it put a simple checkbox along with text box in the GUI for enabling local cache and specifying the path to it?
Cnchi went to great extents creating a special page of things you want to install — Firefox, Vivaldi, Steam, LibreOffice, etc. But opted out of the local cache selection!
Antergos: The first Linux distribution with ZFS support during installation
I cannot fathom how hard it can be to understand the meaning of word support. Cnchi allows ZFS only if you use the complete hard drive, if you are planning to use a partition of installation ZFS is not there.
Conclusion
Antergos showcases an Ugly face of Software. I won’t be surprised if someone tells me that it is a propaganda tool to drive people away from Linux. Its Ugly, Crude and Over Hyped.
