Use an Arch Linux rolling-release VPS on KVM to test software against the newest packages, build AUR packages safely, and reinstall when it breaks.
To test software against the newest Linux packages, deploy an Arch Linux VPS on a KVM host, update it, build and test as a normal user, and reinstall from a clean template whenever an update breaks things. FlashRDP offers an Arch Linux template on every Linux VPS plan.
Arch is a rolling-release distribution. Ubuntu and Debian freeze package versions for each release; Arch ships new upstream versions of compilers, language runtimes and libraries soon after they come out.
Early compatibility checks: find out how your software behaves with new versions of GCC, Python, Node.js and system libraries before stable distributions adopt them.
The Arch User Repository (AUR): community build scripts (PKGBUILDs) for software that isn’t in the official repositories.
Arch updates its kernel and systemd often. Container-based VPS platforms (OpenVZ, LXC) share the host’s kernel, so you can’t run Arch’s own kernel there. A Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) boots Arch’s kernel like real hardware, so kernel updates and modules behave as they would on a physical machine.
AUR packages are user-submitted and not reviewed by Arch. Read each PKGBUILD before you build it, especially on a server with credentials or data you care about.
If an update breaks your test environment, start again: open your server in the Billing Portal, go to the Reinstall tab, and reinstall Arch Linux. A reinstall erases the disk, so copy off anything you need first. See Reinstall your server.Fresh login details are emailed after the reinstall. If you need the password on screen instead, use Reset password on the server’s Settings tab while it’s running.
