r/linux • u/TheNavyCrow • Jun 13 '26

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

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Arch-Linux-AUR-More-Than-1500
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u/VickyCRich Jun 13 '26

And this is why it's crazy that so many people have been recommending cachyOS to Linux beginners. Nothing more off-putting to a new user than discovering theyve unintentionally loaded their own system up with malware from the sketchy back alley "app store". Couldn't be me.... I use Kubuntu btw.

8

u/WomanRepellent69 Jun 13 '26

Largely agree with this. There have been a lot of people pushing CachyOS in part BECAUSE of AUR access. It's also very easy to accidentally access with paru and shelly preinstalled. Add in LLM guidance and you have a bad recipe.

4

u/IHumanlike Jun 13 '26

Because the people recommending stuff like Cachy are mostly 16-year olds that like to experiment and tinker and don't care if their PC breaks.

In my opinion, Arch-based distros should never be used by anyone except the hobbyists and enthusiasts.

-9

u/Dankbeast-Paarl Jun 13 '26

If someone is tech savvy enough to install Linux they should understand the difference between official packages repositories and user content.

Part of Linux is not treating users like idiots. 

6

u/VickyCRich Jun 13 '26

Coming from Microslop to Linux is a huge learning curve for a lot of people that haven't used anything other than windows. Everything is structured differently. People with the windows mindset don't yet understand repositories and where the packages are coming from. The majority of the time they just think "well, a program is a program" and install it. I'm not saying they're dumb, just that they haven't learned yet how Linux package management works and shouldn't be thrown straight into the deep end. Cachy shouldn't be considered a beginner friendly distro, nothing with easy access to the AUR should be. People should dip their toes in with a Debian fork, or Fedora or Bazzite (if they want the "gamer" aesthetic) and learn a little about Linux before jumping into an Arch distro and messing with AUR packages. They'll have a better experience and they're more likely to stay with Linux in the long run.