Arch Linux (or Arch) is an independently developed Linux distribution intended to be lightweight and simple. The design approach of the development team focuses on "simplicity", elegance, code correctness and minimalism. "Simplicity", according to Arch, is defined as "...without unnecessary additions, modifications, or complications...” and is defined from a developer standpoint, rather than a user standpoint.

 Arch Linux uses a "rolling release" system, with new packages provided daily. Its package management permits users to keep systems up-to-date easily. Rather than encouraging users to move between discrete releases, Arch Linux releases are simply snapshots of the current set of packages, sometimes with revised installation software. The first release, 0.1 (codenamed Homer), appeared on 11 March 2002, and the latest is 2008.06 (Overlord), released on 24 June 2008.

 Arch Linux was founded by Judd Vinet, who led the project until 1 October 2007, when he stepped down due to lack of time. Judd's inspiration to create Arch was originally provided by using CRUX, another minimalist distribution. The project is currently led by Aaron Griffin. The distribution is also commonly confused with the unrelated Ark Linux, which was also taken advantage of in a April Fools' Day hoax announcing a name change to Ark Linux.

 Design      

 The slim default install provides only a simple base GNU/Linux environment including the GNU toolchain, Linux kernel, a few extra modules and libraries, and the bash shell. Further system customization and expansion (adding additional software such as a window manager, desktop environment, etc.) is manually accomplished by utilizing pacman to choose additional packages for installation via internet. Arch is therefore generally considered somewhat challenging to install, in comparison to other operating systems.

 Arch uses a BSD-style init framework and is largely based around binary packages. Packages are targeted for i686 and x86-64 microprocessors to assist performance on modern hardware.

 A ports-like system is also provided, known as the ABS (Arch Build System).

 Package management          

 All packages are managed using the Pacman package manager, which handles package installation, upgrades, removal, downgrades, database queries and features automatic dependency resolution. Pacman is written in the C programming language. The packages for Arch Linux are obtained from the Arch Linux package tree and are optimized for either i686 or x86-64 architectures. Arch Linux is primarily based on binary packages in the tar.gz format for the sake of installation expedience, though a ports-like source packaging system (ABS) is also included, which compiles source tarballs into pkg.tar.gz packages that are installed via Pacman.

 ABS provides a directory tree of shell scripts called PKGBUILDS, which enable any and all official Arch packages to be customized, compiled, and packaged. (Installation and removal is subsequently handled by pacman). Rebuilding the entire system using modified compiler flags is also supported by ABS. The ABS makepkg tool can be used to create custom .pkg.tar.gz packages from third-party sources. The resulting packages are also cleanly installable and trackable via pacman.

 Currently there are five official repositories:

•        core, which contains all the packages needed to set up a base system
•        extra, which holds packages not required for the base system, including desktop environments and programs
•        unstable, which has packages for programs in development
•        testing, a special repository, with packages that are candidates for the core, extra or unstable repositories.
•        community, which contains packages built and voted on by the community; includes packages that have sufficient votes and have been adopted by a "trusted user".
  

In addition to these official repositories, a number of user-contributed repositories exist, often with customized or newer versions of the standard software packages.

 Versions

 Arch has no distinct versions after the installation due to its rolling releases. Installation snapshots are created after certain stages of the development. It makes no difference from which snapshot Arch gets installed if updates are installed afterwards.

    * 2008-06-24: 2008.06, Overlord

    * 2008-03-31: 2008-03-1, Core Dump

    * 2007-10-07: 2007.08-2, Don't Panic

    * 2007-08-05: 2007.08, Don't Panic

    * 2007-05-17: 2007.05, Duke

    * 2007-03-31: 0.8, Voodoo

    * 2006-05-23: 0.7.2, Gimmick

    * 2006-01-05: 0.7.1, Noodle

    * 2005-01-24: 0.7, Wombat

    * 2004-03-01: 0.6, Widget

    * 2003-06-21: 0.5, Nova

    * 2002-12-18: 0.4, Dragon

    * 2002-08-07: 0.3, Firefly

    * 2002-04-17: 0.2, Vega

    * 2002-03-11: 0.1, Homer