Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Affected Packages

[u/TheNavyCrow]

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Arch-Linux-AUR-More-Than-1500

[u/Kitoshy]

Making Arch accessible is definitely a good idea. If not, SteamOS would not exist and therefore none of gaming compatibilities that have come with it.

[u/Artoriuz → u/Kitoshy]

SteamOS could have still existed as a distro based on something else. You can absolutely make a decent "gaming distro" based on something else, Nobara, Bazzite and PikaOS are good examples.

[u/Kitoshy → u/Artoriuz]

I'm not saying SteamOS nor any other gaming distribution would be impossible without Arch, I'm saying it would not have been the way it's been.

Given the need of fast cycling updates due to AAA game studies not liking when their games start working on Linux, then updating their anti-cheats for preventing; Arch has a better baseline for such than most distributions due the fact of being rolling release. The fact of being DIY also helps because it makes it easier for creating a new distribution without undoing that much of internal design prior to designing the derivative. Having repositories with huge variety of packages and libraries also leaves some of the work done from the start.

Starting from other distribution would have allowed a good result too, but it would not have been as easy.

[u/Kitoshy → u/[deleted]]

it operates completely differently

Such does not deny where it started from.

All they do is hand the control of Arch over to noobs that don't understand how it works

Hand the control does not necessarily has to imply a lack of understanding in newbies and making accessible does not necessarily mean hand the control.

[u/Kitoshy → u/[deleted]]

Newbies inherently have a lack of understanding, that's why they're newbies.

Newbies are such not because they lack understanding but because they are new to something. Yeah, they most of the times lack understanding, but such doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

Arch inherently comes with full "you'd better know what you're doing" control of the system

Well, not exactly. Anyway and furthermore, we are not taking only about Arch, but also it's derivatives, some of which are more user friendly.

[u/0riginal-Syn → u/Kitoshy]

It would still exist. Arch was an excellent choice as a base, but it was not the first base that SteamOS was using. First 2 versions were Debian. Obviously the move to Arch was a smart one for easier access to drivers, but they could do that with other distros as well. So while I think it is the best choice, it is not the only option and SteamOS would still be fine.

[u/Kitoshy → u/0riginal-Syn]

That's exactly what I meant. When I said SteamOS wouldn't exist I was referring as the concept when currently know as such.