I’m curious about trying Arch Linux, but I want to know what’s difficult or impossible with it first, as that’s usually what stops me sticking with a distro.

I’m particularly interested in software/driver support. For example, NVIDIA doesn’t mention Arch in its CUDA download page.

UPDATE: OK it sounds like Arch is for bleeding edge. That sounds fun, but I like things simple and reliable, so I’ll still with Ubuntu. I might run Arch on my secondary drive, or toy with it in Docker.

  • starshipwinepineapple@programming.dev
    10·
    4 days ago

    There are cuda packages for arch. I can confirm they work.

    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GPGPU

    Edit- to add i haven’t found arch’s limit, it feels like i am bound only by my own limit in my time, ability, and willingness to tinker with my setup. arch itself is widely supported, it has many official packages through pacman, and then additional through the “arch user repository” (AUR) so chances are most of the things you want or need have a package that can be installed with an AUR helper (like yay/paru which install from both pacman and AUR). In other distros you get more of a one-size fits all and you lose some of that ability to change things whereas arch you’re giving a minimal setup and left to build the system to your liking. It does take more time and expertise than other distros but it does give you more control. For me the trade off was an easy decision, but it’s not something i blanket recommend to everyone.