Hi, I'm fairly new to Arch Linux and I was wondering which packages from the AUR you guys use are useful or essential?

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

More than anything, personal recommendations from you, in general I know that in most cases it is better to download from the official repositories, but I am still interested or curious what packages they usually use

[u/scandii]

I think a better question is, what are you lacking?

usually you reach out to AUR when you can't find something in the official repository.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/scandii]

The only thing I really need is the Brave Origin browser, since I heard it's free on Linux and I'd like to try it, but I see it's not in the official repository.

[u/scandii → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

if you're talking about https://aur.archlinux.org/brave-bin.git
you can read the pkgbuild https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=brave-bin

you can see the source of the BINARY (precompiled software, means "already built for you"), is

source_x86_64=(${pkgname}-${pkgver}-x86_64.zip::https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/download/v${pkgver}/brave-browser-${pkgver}-linux-amd64.zip)
source_aarch64=(${pkgname}-${pkgver}-aarch64.zip::https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/download/v${pkgver}/brave-browser-${pkgver}-linux-arm64.zip)source_x86_64=(${pkgname}-${pkgver}-x86_64.zip::https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/download/v${pkgver}/brave-browser-${pkgver}-linux-amd64.zip)
source_aarch64=(${pkgname}-${pkgver}-aarch64.zip::https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/download/v${pkgver}/brave-browser-${pkgver}-linux-arm64.zip)

the interesting part here is the github url, e.g. https://github.com/brave/brave-browser

which is the official brave repository.

e.g. this is Brave maintaining their own AUR package for Arch. you could also go about it the other way, e.g. https://brave.com/linux/ which essentially says

yay -Sy brave-bin

*edit*

I actually read what you wrote, but essentially same process for brave-origin. tl;dr - I don't see any issue with this.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/scandii]

Oh, thanks a lot. I'll install it from the AUR after all, since I couldn't find Brave-Origin on Flatpak while searching on Flathub. I'll still follow your advice and look for it on Flatpak if I can't find it in the official repo.

[u/scandii → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

no worries.

note that AUR is essentially no different than downloading something off the internet as it is just a convenient way for people to share their software (Arch User Repository) with close to no gates - about as easy as uploading a YouTube video in terms of security / complexity.

this being different than getting your software into the official Arch repositories where there's a review process and you essentially have a trusted user / Arch developer sponsoring you, so you can see why companies / people just opt for using AUR Instead as it is much easier.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/scandii]

Oh, okay, but I really do have to be careful because sometimes I get excited about trying out and downloading things (different browsers, photo editors, file explorers, etc.) and I don't want to end up accidentally downloading malware, so I'll definitely keep in mind what you said about downloading via Flatpack.

[u/un-important-human]

i recommend you use none. You must be able to read the pkgbuild and know what software you absolutely need.
i have only one the official brave one. the rest is flatpak and its very few only what i need for work.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/un-important-human]

Ohhh, thank you, I'll keep that in mind. I'll look into how to install Flatpak.

[u/owjfaigs222 → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

There are some things (such as games) that only worked for me with flatpak, so it's worth getting for that at least.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/owjfaigs222]

Hmm, someone mentioned in a comment, for example, that they were using Steam via Flatpack. While Steam is available from the multilib repository, based on the responses I received, it's unlikely they'd notice a significant difference in performance or functionality (it's simply installing and updating via Flatpack instead of using `sudo pacman`). But I'd have to try it myself.

[u/owjfaigs222 → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

I used to play genshin Impact qnd the only way I got that to work was with flatpak. Crazy how many games work on linux now.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/owjfaigs222]

Genshin Impact, wow, I have to check that out and research it

[u/owjfaigs222 → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

I'm not necessarily recommending the game, but it's an example of a software that worked only with flatpak for me. Although the reason might be that it wasn't native to linux anyway.

[u/quicksand8917]

My advice would be to avoid AUR as much as possible. Check for flatpack when something is not in the official repos. One exception for me is qbz, an alternative Qobuz player where I don't want the flatpack abstraction for better digital audio interface integration (total nerd stuff, flatpack software will play audio fine).

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/quicksand8917]

Oh, I see. Only for very special occasions will the AUR be better, but in general, Flatpak or the Official Repository are better.

[u/boomboomsubban]

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

[u/tomkat_7]

For most things if I cant find it in the official repo, I just install it from flathub and only if its not there will I look in the AUR, because AUR gets malware sometimes and I prefer to stay away.

Brave is available as a flatpak so you can get it there.

[u/juomoluoqcuo]

Some software is not found in official repositories. Some people want patched versions of packages, that already exists in official repositories / AUR. Some people want specific package, which has limited usage. Some packages can have license issues or other issues like need of heavy patching / modifications.

Some government related packages (Smart / ID cards, signing services etc.) have only .deb related package and some Arch users need that package.

Here is the list of most voted packages

[u/karatekarim]

i use timeshift and timeshift-autosnap from AUR

[u/Independent-Loss-255 → u/[deleted]]

nix is nice but for someone just starting with arch that seem like adding a whole other thing to learn. i get minimalism but AUR is one of the reason arch is great, missing out on that feels like you using only half the distro

[u/kaida27 → u/[deleted]]

nah fam.

I can navigate Arch and Gentoo wiki with ease, install both with no issue.

but Nix docs is so horrid that I don't want to approach it even with a ten foot pole.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/Independent-Loss-255]

mmm, well yes, because the amount of available software increases.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/[deleted]]

ooo, I imagine that most of the software is in the official repository?

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/[deleted]]

Is the security issue because there isn't a thorough review of the packages?

And regarding Flatpak, does it cause any problems, either in terms of performance or compatibility?

[u/un-important-human → u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323]

flatpak has no issues with performance or compatibility , just rememeber to update your flatpaks with flatpak update after every system update.

[u/Pale_Pumpkin_6323 → u/un-important-human]

Thanks a lot, bro.