EndeavourOS Artemis: Arch Linux, but a bit friendlier
- Reference: 1656502751
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/29/endeavouros_artemis_226/
- Source link:
EndeavourOS hews more closely to its parent distro than, for example, Manjaro, which we [3]looked at very recently . Unlike Manjaro, it doesn't have its own staging repositories or releases. It installs packages directly from the upstream Arch repositories, using the standard Arch package manager pacman . It also bundles [4]yay to easily fetch packages from the Arch User Repository , [5]AUR . The yay command takes the same switches as pacman does, so if you wanted to install, say, Google Chrome, it's as simple as yay -s google-chrome and a few seconds later, it's done.
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EndeavourOS Artemis comes with a neatly configured Xfce desktop, themed in purple
We tried the latest release, 22.6, code-named Artemis, in a VM on an old ThinkPad W520, and it installed without a hitch. The ISO is a little under 2GB in size, and its boot menu includes an option to use current Nvidia drivers. On our relatively elderly hardware, this still booted into the Xfce desktop fine, but with a warning message that our GPU was too old and needed the version 390 legacy drivers. That's not as smooth as [7]Elementary OS, which just installed the right drivers , but the identification and info were correct, which is the next best thing.
When you run the installation program, it asks which of its two modes to use: offline or online. An offline installation doesn't require any internet connection, but you get the same Xfce desktop as the live environment. Installing online presents a wide choice of desktops: Xfce, KDE Plasma, GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, Budgie, LXQt, LXDE, and the i3 tiling window manager.
Impressively, there are [8]Community Editions with even more choices, with options for OpenBox, Deepin, and additional tiling environments: Sway, [9]BSPWM , [10]Qtile , [11]LeftWM , and the homegrown [12]WORM .
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We kept it simple and picked offline installations as Xfce is The Reg FOSS desk's second-favorite desktop. The result was good: a single taskbar at the bottom, Windows-style, with a tasteful purple theme and wallpaper. You don't get an office suite by default, just Firefox and a welcome screen. When you reboot into the installed distro, the welcome screen reappears, but unlike, say, [14]the welcome screen in Linux Lite , it registers that the OS has now been installed, and offers helpful post-install options instead, such as picking local mirrors and doing an update. This is much better and far less confusing.
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Updating EndeavourOS is quick, and although the updater is text-based, we enjoyed watching multiple downloads happen in parallel. The Grub screen is graphical, complete with more purple-hued wallpaper. The OS boots quickly, updates quickly, and feels snappy and responsive.
[17]Running DOS on 64-bit Windows and Linux: Just because you can
[18]Misguided call for a 7-Zip boycott brings attention to FOSS archiving tools
[19]Startup rattles tin for e-paper monitor with display fast enough to play video
[20]Ubuntu Touch OTA-23 is coming: Do you have one of the older model phones that can test it?
The distro is systemd-based, but by default, neither Flatpak nor Snap are installed, and there's no software store. The Xfce installation is based on traditional X.org (version 21.1.3), with no trace of Wayland to be seen. This should please the more traditionalist Linux users.
We tried installing a few apps from the standard repos and from the AUR, such as the htop tool, Nvidia drivers, the [21]Tilde text editor , and Google Chrome. Everything worked as we'd expect. The Yay AUR installer can ask quite a lot of questions, but if you just keep tapping the Enter key, the defaults seem to do the job: everything we tried installed and worked successfully. And as ever, there's the excellent [22]ArchWiki to turn to for guidance.
We still wouldn't recommend a rolling-release distro to a total Linux beginner, but if you have a little experience and want to learn more, EndeavourOS seems like a happy compromise. It's as straightforward to install as any standard distro, meaning that it's considerably easier than Arch itself. It doesn't include all the baggage of the big name distros' cross-platform packaging tools, software stores, and so on, or fancy custom desktops such as [23]Pop!_OS's COSMIC or Elementary's Pantheon. It's simple and clean, but not as [24]extremely minimalist as Alpine Linux .
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After you install, you will have to make your way up the learning curve of Arch's command-line tools. But learning, always having cutting-edge components, and a distro you can customize to your heart's desire are Arch's selling points. EndeavourOS tries to get you there a little more easily, and we reckon it succeeded. ®
Get our [26]Tech Resources
[1] https://endeavouros.com/news/artemis-is-launched/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/15/arch_linux_20/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/22/manjaro_213_released/
[4] https://github.com/Jguer/yay
[5] https://aur.archlinux.org/
[6] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/06/28/endeavouros-226-xfce.jpg
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/21/elementary_os_61/
[8] https://github.com/EndeavourOS-Community-Editions
[9] https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm
[10] http://www.qtile.org/
[11] https://leftwm.org/
[12] https://github.com/codic12/worm
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yrx3I@BomXsd1YCr49VIhAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/01/linux_lite_60/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yrx3I@BomXsd1YCr49VIhAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yrx3I@BomXsd1YCr49VIhAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/28/friday_foss_fest_running_dos/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/27/7zip_compression_tool/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/24/modos_e_paper_monitors/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/23/ubports_ota23_is_coming/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/17/tilde_text_editor/
[22] https://wiki.archlinux.org/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/28/pop_os_2204_is_here/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/alpine_linux_316_released/
[25] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yrx3I@BomXsd1YCr49VIhAAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[26] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Here goes my judging a book by its cover
-> EndeavourOS
Congratulations on using the correct spelling for endeavour.
-> It also bundles yay to easily fetch packages from the Arch User Repository, AUR. The yay command takes the same switches as pacman does,
If ever two apps deserved to be merged it is pacman and yay. It's like having /bin/ls and /bin/ls-etc which is a wrapper around /bin/ls to look in /etc. And the name... it's as unintuitive as it gets. Even "yarp" in Hot Fuzz was understandable and derivable to "narp".
-> When you run the installation program, it asks which of its two modes to use: offline or online.
This is a good feature, because I have seen more than one Linux installation get their over inflated knickers in a twist when it "thinks" the network is there but is not. Asking do you want offline or online yields a definite answer.
-> Xfce, KDE Plasma, GNOME, MATE, Cinnamon, Budgie, LXQt, LXDE, and the i3 tiling window manager....
-> Impressively, there are Community Editions with even more choices, with options for OpenBox, Deepin, and additional tiling environments: Sway, BSPWM, Qtile, LeftWM, and the homegrown WORM.
That's a heck of a lot of desktops. Despite my usual reservations about seemingly endless distros (and umpteen choices even within those distros) I'm glad to see that WORM gets a mention. It's very minimalist for those who like that sort of thing.
-> The distro is systemd-based, but by default, neither Flatpak nor Snap are installed, and there's no software store. The Xfce installation is based on traditional X.org (version 21.1.3), with no trace of Wayland to be seen.
Front page news. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, you don't need systemd or Wayland. Your world will not crumble.
-> After you install, you will have to make your way up the learning curve of Arch's command-line tools.
This is really my biggest bugbear about all the different package managers (and to some extent configuration managers where they exist). You have pulled your hair out thanks to the obscurities of dpkg and apt. You give an RPM distro a try, and have to learn a whole bunch of new commands to do the same thing you thought you already knew. Now it's over to pacman. If there really cannot be one package manager, why can there not be the equivalent of LSB (perhaps a bad example, as LSB is no more) or POSIX for Linux package managers. There is no reason why they can not all take $pkgmanager -install $package-name, to install, and -uninstall to uninstall it, and they can do whatever they want behind the scenes. Instead there is "install" "--install" "-i" "-S", and more. Here choice is not a good thing, it is a waste of time. Unless you are aiming to receive a certification in Linux package managers.
Arch decendents
I was interested in looking at it until you said it was built on systemd. I have been using Artix, which is also based on Arch, for several years. I prefer KDE over Gnome, and the lightweight desktops are just a little too lightweight for me. Although I tend to use LxQT most of the time.
I prefer rolling release distributions. We can probably blame Microsoft, but I have never liked doing full version upgrades on a PC ever since getting burned by Win95. Rolling releases let me do it a little at a time, while with a full version upgrade I tend to want to format the drive and start fresh.
I'm using OpenRC to avoid the systemd cancer. And about my only complaint with Artix is the community is too small. So often you have to fall back to Arch documentation to find a solution to a problem. That can be problematic in areas where Artix diverges from Arch.