Arch Turns Ten

It was a full decade ago that Arch Linux made its public debut. Over the weekend developers and users posted of their early experiences and brought the milestone to the forefront. However, users have been discussing just how to mark this upcoming anniversary for several months on the forum.

Karol asked on January 25: "How do we celebrate?" She suggested, "By bringing the whole wiki up to date? Donations drive? Or maybe by bringing the whole wiki up to date?" byte thinks the date should be marked on April 1. I'm sure there's an inside joke there that I don't get. /dev/zero also wants to celebrate by working. zero suggests, "ensure all packages in extra and community are signed." I'd bet there's a way to prove that it's this work ethic and dedication that makes Arch what it is. Contributors have been wishing well and sharing experiences on Planet Arch as well.

Arch Linux 0.1, codename Homer, was officially released on March 11, 2002. It shipped with Linux 2.4.18, GCC 2.95.3, and Perl 5.6.1. The announcement, scarce on detail, spoke more of the upcoming 0.2 than 0.1.

Arch sits at the sixth position on Distrowatch.com's Page Hit Ranking chart for, coincidently, most of the time frames since Year 2011. In previous years, it inched up the chart as more and more users tried and wrote of their experiences with Arch Linux. Reviews tend to be quite positive and reflect why Arch has become one of the most popular and respected distributions today.

Happy Birthday Arch!