Antergos on the other hand uses the Arch repos - so once installed, you will be running Arch. So Antergos is pretty much about installing Arch and a desktop environment in an easier way than the traditional Arch approach.
In other words; if the installation is not easier then Antergos pretty much is useless
So I boot up the LiveCD: | I get a nice overview of my install options: |
I go for the GUI installer. It lets me pick the DE - Gnome shell is the default. | So I pick Xfce... Here i get a nice option of setting up the stuff. Really user friendly. |
I go on to the partitioning and I also get the option to encrypt my setup- All really nice and userfriendly:
I am prompted about my user etc and then it is time to reboot.
The GUI installation so far has been extremely easy and friendly. So I reboot and remove the install media and get to the Login screen:
And there I am completely unable to log in I repeat the entire enchilada and it does not help. The user is there but there is no indication of the DE on the bottom left.
When I enter the password I am simply returned to the Login page - so I am stuck there.
So the Antergos GUI installer does not work
Going for the CLI installation then:
This is pretty much about the same steps as the GUI but you need to know the name of you locale etc. It is nothing for complete greenhorns - but if you have used Linux before you will manage just fine. It is not difficult.
And oh wonder: This time it all works.
I am logged in to my fresh Xfce environment | I re-arange the panels because I like the main panel on the bottom: |
Then I go to the terminal and discover that my keyboard is not correctly configured. It looks like that locale config is not "sitting".
So I go to the Xfce settings panel and add Norwegian and delete the default US keyboard there.
Now it pretty much works as it should.
So is this an easy to install Arch? No I don't think so. It may be "easier" than the traditional Arch install ..but if you have to hunt bugs after the install you may spend more time with this.
It is Arch to 100% though - and Arch is good if not the best distro out there.
And there is a market for "easy" Arch installing - so the idea is good.
Antergos does not seem to be quite there yet though. If you want a user friendly option Manjaro is a great alternative. And there the install works just fine.