2021 Brought A Convenient Installer For Arch Linux, Powering The Steam Deck

Arch Linux had a pretty great year with introducing "Archinstall" as part of the official install media as a new, optional installer for conveniently installing the distribution to Valve choosing Arch Linux as their new SteamOS 3.0 base that will power their forthcoming Steam Deck handheld game console.

By nearly any indicator, Arch Linux had a pretty great 2021. Arguably most exciting is the Steam Deck / SteamOS switching to Arch Linux where as previously Valve relied upon Debian that fell stale too quickly. Using Arch Linux will allow for more fast-paced updates and ensuring the newest, most optimal experience for their Linux-based handheld slated to start shipping next quarter. Until getting out new SteamOS images, Valve has been encouraging developers to test on the Arch-based Manjaro Linux distribution that is desktop-oriented and easy to use.

For those short on time or just looking for an easy way to get Arch Linux installed to begin experimenting with it, this year also brought Archinstall added to the Arch Linux install media. The text-based installer is very easy to use and very quick if wanting a basic Arch Linux install going in a matter of minutes. In the months since its introduction, Archinstall has continued adding many features.

Also exciting for the project this year was flipping on LTO by default for making use of link-time optimizations when building for Arch. Another exciting milestone in the name of performance and modern computing is Arch's x86-64-v3 port.

Do you use #Arch #Linux?

— Phoronix (@phoronix) December 31, 2021

Aside from that, Arch Linux has continued with its monthly ISO refreshes and rolling along with all of the bleeding-edge package updates. Outside of Arch Linux itself, Arch-based distributions like Manjaro and EndeavourOS have enjoyed new releases and successes this year as well and ended out the year with Manjaro 21.2 and EndeavourOS 21.4.