Archcraft - A Lightweight and Stylish Arch Distro for Ricers

Archcraft is a lightweight Arch distro that comes pre-configured with Openbox and Bspwm. What really makes this distro stand out though
is the theming and styling options that are available, especially in the Openbox variant.
To put it bluntly, this is a ricers dream. Want to change the overall style, tweak the look of the app launcher, change your terminal colours,
or generate a random wallpaper quickly and easily? If so, you'll appreciate the simple tools that let you do all of this with a couple of clicks
of the mouse.
Let's be blunt. I like to do my own ricing from scratch, but I know many people would prefer to start with a base that they can build on and tweak so that they end up with something that is unique to their own preferences. If that's you, then Archcraft could be what you've been looking for.
I hope you enjoy the video :-)
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Ramble On!

[@arturofatturi9490]

R.I.P. OTB and thanks for all your videos...

[@phrtao]

Good to see you back (you are now part of my Saturday evenings after the football). This distro is one of the few that actually offers something different and seems to be a great starting point for people who want Arch and a window manager. Incredible that just one guy has done all this, most people have just one or two layouts in them, this guy has endless creativity.

[@peppe540]

Thanks Steve, a nice one again! For anyone worrying about the one man show: Aditya Shakya has been around for ages already, starting out with ricing of OpenBox and Polybar. You can find his work everywhere on the internet and rightly so. Special guy.

[@aytviewer2421]

AND Today, I learned a new term. Before this video, I had never even heard of "ricing" before. At least, I did not know that was a specific term for it. 😀

[@Danielddiniz]

Great 👍🏼 to hear from you Steve, missed your voice last Saturday! Hope you feel better and get well soon! Thanks for this review video!

[@taidee]

I'm seriously impressed, this distro doesn't exist just to exist, it is something special for sure.

[@neotwenty-nineBzH]

Well.. Nothing exceptional under the sun 🌞😊

[@andril]

The dev is on his game with this ISO - definitely a interesting option - running this on a few machines

[@mpumelelogumede6557]

Hi, Chuck. Does it take a lot of RAM? Would it work on an old Toshiba laptop with 2GB?

[@andril]

@@mpumelelogumede6557 it should work fine but keep in mind the more you add the more it requires. This is made for light resources.

[@mpumelelogumede6557]

@@andril cool! I'll give it a try. Thank you.

[@andril]

@@mpumelelogumede6557 run the Live session so you get a snapshot of the performance

[@mcbeat4853]

Hacker theme is really nice and clean, the best arch experience for a newbhie like me

[@KingMasadaX]

All freaking night I've been wondering why this looks so familiar, then I realized Archcraft works with the Arco team now, then it hit me, Archcraft uses almost the exact same layout as Arco Linux B-extended, it's like someone took Arco and threw Void at it to splatter the colors for that modern retro style.

[@TheDrunkenAlcoholic]

default theme is the first entry in the menu, just above the word "|Simple|". You can see he has put a lot of working into this distro, really nice work

[@maboxupdatesextras4592]

Glad to have you bk, Steve. Thanks for this detailed review, no doubt ArchCraft developer has been doing an amazing job with this theming arch linux distro. We love Openbox customizing tools here with Mabox Linux as well. Congrats to Arch Linux developer and contributors. Thank you for this nice one and hope you recover the sooner the better please stay safe

[@Hoffmann.rainer]

Thank you so much for looking into this one!

[@BrucesWorldofStuff]

Wow Archcraft sure has changed in a year. I'm not a Openbox user but I enjoyed watching this one. I like to theme my stuff too but I do like that you have all the options... Glad your doing better and the voice was not to bad... Lol Awe the call of the beast! The wind blowing through the hair and the thumping of the bugs! Such memories... Lol Lol Lol Go and enjoy, be free... :-P Thanks OTB for a awesome video! LLAP

[@OldTechBloke]

Cheers mate

[@gleidhold]

great review, thank you. Seems a good point to get started with wm and ricing.

[@derekr54]

Nice video Steve,glad you are recovered from the throat virus.

[@yagamicc]

gui look simple and nice, thank you good video sir

[@ilicwindows]

much luv man get healthy keep the vids when you can

[@slifek85]

Archcraft is great I'm using it for a while now on my thinkpad. I'm thinking of making it my main OS. Mabox is doing a great job as well :D

[@cookedpotato]

Been using it as my main when it got released, am new to Linux so I decided to pick arch, and then I decided to pick arch craft cus it beautiful af, never regreted

[@simpan197]

I believe the "NA" module is part of the brightness module, but because you're on a virtual machine it has no brightness

[@OldTechBloke]

Makes sense :-)

[@Abdelkrim.]

This is the most beautiful linux distro i ever use i really love it really also the most distro unstable i have issues when im using it and no one give a fuk when u ask on they're discord or reddite why other distro can't do smothing beautiful out of the box like this

[@RobBoudreau]

Pretty interesting distro. I think that would be attractive to those who get bored with the look of their desktop and change it often, they'd have a lot to work with there. Take it easy and get better Steve. Yep, a few more weeks and Spring will be on us, I'm sure the Enfield would like to get out too. 😉

[@OldTechBloke]

I agree Rob

[@rodrigocarvalho2335]

Hello. I have a problem. After installing archcraft openbox and changing the theme, the system becomes slow, unresponsive and completely crashes. Any help to solve this problem?

[@redfonzie21]

The Open Box one is probably what I would go to as well. Unless I missed it, though, what default applications come with the iso and how easily can you add to them? This has been my latest issue preventing me from switching to a Linux version, the difficulty of getting to new/different applications. Of course, I've been using "live" versions and not dedicated installs, that might be part of the problem. I'm not sure how to set up a virtual machine in windows.

[@OldTechBloke]

As with all Linux systems applications are easy to add. You probably need to do some reading though if you’re not sure how to set up a vm

[@aecl4287]

You should try axyl-os, Its a bit outdated for an Arch distro but they are working on a big release. But its honestly amazing, it has a lot of Tiling wms, and its another distro for ricers. Hope you grt better!

[@parthitachattopadhyay]

Man you have an interceptor and you use Linux real chad 🤤🛐

[@themroc8231]

I just had a look at their Github and they seem to also have config files for Xmonad and I3.

[@OldTechBloke]

Yes I assume they can be cloned and used if you install the wms

[@themroc8231]

@@OldTechBloke If you still have that VM maybe you could check if you don't have the config files already there just waiting for you to install it? That was another thing I thought might be happening.

[@themroc8231]

@@OldTechBloke In which case I would also be curious to know whether it has also been configured so that one can apply global theme changes like in Openbox and BSPM.

[@themroc8231]

@@nolawz478 I don't see any package in the AUR that includes the word "archcraft". Did you mean to say that it was on another repository maintained by Archcraft? Other questions: Are the Xmonad config files available to install from that same repository too? Do you know whether the i3 and/or the Xmonad config files also implement a way to apply global themes, like in Openbox and BSPWM?

[@JarppaGuru]

14:45 its linux you can change just rofi whateva it is style alone everything is prob config files

[@itsfish8672]

R u feeling better OTB?but good to seeya an great vid.

[@OldTechBloke]

I’m am mate, but not fully there yet

[@RK-yx9xi]

Is that a Royal Enfield behind you?

[@ipshitshaha7244]

I will definitely use this if its available in Debian or Ubuntu... Really loved the theming but not a fan of rolling releases...

[@glidersuzuki5572]

What is that right click menu?

[@OldTechBloke]

It’s the standard open box menu but heavily customised

[@MASTERTIME13]

I have had a question for a long time. Who are the Ricers?

[@OldTechBloke]

Anyone who likes messing with themes and colours

[@MASTERTIME13]

@@OldTechBloke ok!

[@MASTERTIME13]

@@OldTechBloke So it's me, ha. I downloaded this distribution kit, I'm fiddling ... However, I can not understand where the taskbar transparency setting is located. There is transparency in the text file, in some panel styles too, but I can’t find a separate customization ... Do you know where it can be?

[@DMSBrian24]

@@MASTERTIME13 name rice/ricer comes from the car culture, it started in japan with super silhouette race cars in the 70s and 80s having insane body kits for better aerodynamics, japanese car enthusiasts started mimicking their style despite it obviously not affecting their cars performance, the trend caught on in the west in the 90s and even more in the 00s, mainly through movies (fast and furious) and anime (initial D), the term rice developed at the dusk of this trend, refers to its japanese origin (cause rice xd) and is an acronym for race inspired cosmetic enhancements, ricer is a somewhat derogatory term to describe car enthusiasts who prioritize cosmetic upgrades and don't focus on their cars performance, the word then got used a lot on desktop customization forums by people who shared interest in both and since it's catchy, it stuck around and lost its derogatory meaning, it's a funny loop since most desktop ricers are also anime fans and will have a lot of japanese or anime inspired wallpapers etc.

[@MASTERTIME13]

@@DMSBrian24 Ha!

[@itsfish8672]

Otb i know u like void,slackware.But have a look at Kiss Linux, I think you may like it too.

[@JarppaGuru]

world will be nicer if we drop "distros/flavors" and just apt install "anything". its just openbox. arch not mean anything