Antergos is a discontinued

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

based on

Arch Linux Arch Linux () is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, ...

. It includes the

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a grap ...

by default but it could also employ the

Cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakf ...

, MATE,

KDE Plasma 5 KDE Plasma 5 is the fifth and current generation of the graphical workspaces environment created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. KDE Plasma 5 is the successor of KDE Plasma 4 and was first released on 15 July 2014. It includes a new default ...

Deepin Deepin (stylized as deepin; formerly known as Linux Deepin and Hiweed Linux) is a Linux distribution based on the Debian "stable" branch. It features the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), built on Qt and available for a variety of distribution ...

, and Xfce desktops. It was first released in July 2012 as Cinnarch and by June 2013 it was ranked among the top 40 most popular distributions viewed at

DistroWatch DistroWatch is a website which provides news, distribution pages hit rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/ open source Unix-like operating systems. It now contains informati ...

. The Galician word ''Antergos'' (meaning: ''ancestors'') was chosen "to link the past with the present". Development was ended on 21 May 2019, due to lack of time on the part of the volunteer developers. It was succeeded by

EndeavourOS EndeavourOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. EndeavourOS features the graphical Calamares installer capable of installing the Xfce, Budgie, Cinnamon, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma 5, LXQt, and MATE desktop environments, the former of wh ...

on 15 July 2019.

History and development

Initially the project began as ''Cinnarch'' and the

used by this distribution was ''

'', a fork of

GNOME Shell GNOME Shell is the graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 3, which was released on April 6, 2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications, switching between windows and is also a widget engine. ...

developed by the

Linux Mint Linux Mint is a community-driven Linux distribution based on Ubuntu (which is in turn based on Debian), bundled with a variety of free and open-source applications. It can provide full out-of-the-box multimedia support for those who choose to i ...

team. In April 2013 the team adopted GNOME for future releases, beginning with GNOME version 3.6, due to the difficulty of keeping Cinnamon (which did not make it a priority to stay compatible with the latest GTK libraries) in the repositories of a rolling release like Arch Linux. The distribution was accordingly renamed to ''Antergos'' and released under the new name in May 2013. Other changes in the default configuration of the system included:

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in ...

replacing the Nemo file Manager, GDM replacing MDM (Mint Display Manager) as desktop manager and

Empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

replacing

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

as the messaging client. Starting with version 2014.05.26, Antergos partnered with the Numix project to bring Numix-Square icons and an exclusive Numix-Frost theme to the operating system. On 7 March 2015, an Antergos Minimal ISO was made available, providing only necessary components for the installer to function. On 21 May 2019 the developers announced the end of development for the project, citing lack of time to work on it. They explained, "Today, we are announcing the end of this project. As many of you probably noticed over the past several months, we no longer have enough free time to properly maintain Antergos. We came to this decision because we believe that continuing to neglect the project would be a huge disservice to the community. Taking this action now, while the project’s code still works, provides an opportunity for interested developers to take what they find useful and start their own projects." The developers indicated that existing users will cease getting Antergos updates, eventually the Antergos repositories will be removed via an update and users will be left essentially running Arch Linux. The forums and wiki page were to be maintained for a maximum of three further months. As of 27 May 2020, their website is offline.

Installation

Antergos includes the ''Cnchi'' graphical installer, which boots into a

desktop environment, but during installation gives the user the option to choose between

GNOME 3 GNOME 3 is the third major release of the GNOME desktop environment. A major departure from technologies implemented by its predecessors, GNOME 3 introduced a dramatically different user interface. It was the first GNOME release to utilize a uni ...

, Mate,

, Xfce,

deepin Deepin (stylized as deepin; formerly known as Linux Deepin and Hiweed Linux) is a Linux distribution based on the Debian "stable" branch. It features the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), built on Qt and available for a variety of distribution ...

and Openbox desktop environments. A network connection is required to begin the installation and to automatically update the ''Cnchi'' installer prior to installation.

Package management

Antergos releases operated on a

rolling release Rolling release, also known as rolling update or continuous delivery, is a concept in software development of frequently delivering updates to applications. This is in contrast to a ''standard'' or '' point release'' development model which uses s ...

schedule and utilized the Arch Linux official repositories and the

AUR AUR, or aur, may refer to: * Acute urinary retention * African Union of Railways * Alliance for Romanian Unity * Alliance for the Union of Romanians * American University of Rome * Arch User Repository * Aur Atoll, Marshall Islands * Auriga const ...

, along with Antergos's own software repositories. It was a Pacman-based distribution with a graphical installer. Antergos by default does not include an

office suite Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital painting ...

. However, since the earliest Cinnarch release, it has included the "LibreOffice Installer for Arch Linux" which makes it easy to select and download the required LibreOffice components.

Releases

The first ISO by the name of Cinnarch was launched on 7 May 2012, accompanied by a message in the Arch Linux forum notifying users of the release. The first version under the Antergos name was released on 12 May 2013.

References

External links