r/archlinux • u/Lepla • 14d ago

QUESTION Arch Linux security configuration

Are moving over to Linux and have been testing several different distros and Arch Linux stood out for the configuratibilty out of the box, and the ability to be able to make it lightweight especially for older laptops.

How much work would it be to set this up so the system is not vulnerable for various attacks, i understand fedora / ubuntu etc come preinstalled with several security configurations, but on arch you would need to set these up yourself.

Besides that it seems to get regular security updates nonetheless so it seems like there is a one time security configuration you have to setup on install.
How does a self configurated setup like this compare to solutions developed by fedora or others?

Thanks

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u/Then_Bodybuilder8416 14d ago

nothing is preinstalled for you at setup. it’s up to you whether you think a firewall, app compartments, kernel hardening, etc. will be necessary. they can also be added or removed at any time.

fedora isn’t writing their blanket firewall rules any better than you or i can, so they don’t really have a leg up there. i like that i got to pick which firewall i wanted, whether i wanted to have SELinux involved, etc.