I’m a little bit underwhelmed, I thought that based off the fact so many people seem to make using this distro their personality I expected… well, more I guess?
Once the basic stuff is set-up, like wifi, a few basic packages, a desktop environment/window manager, and a bit of desktop environment and terminal customisation, then that’s it. Nothing special, just a Linux distribution with less default programs and occasionally having to look up how to install a hardware driver or something if you need to use bluetooth for the first time or something like that.
Am I missing something? How can I make using Arch Linux my personality when once it’s set up it’s just like any other computer?
What exactly is it that people obsess over? The desktop environment and terminal customisation? Setting up NetworkManager with nmcli? Using Vim to edit a .conf file?
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Most distros are very similar - it’s mostly the same software just using a different package manager.
This is why “which distro should I use” is the most annoying question in this community.
There is a pretty big difference in terms of usability between Arch and everything else because of the rolling release model and the AUR. Lots of things you would have to manually install from a git repo or track down a PPA for can be installed like a normal package.
So what you’re saying is that the package manager is very different?
My point stands - once things are installed your “Linux Experience” is pretty similar.
NOTE: I’ve used words like “most” and “similar” and “pretty”. Do not ignore these words. They have meaning.
What did you expect they are using the same programs.
I would say it’s not very different, just one league above all the others that I’ve come across.
The three things that stand out in my opinion is how much their package manager can query packages, it’s rolling release and the number of packages they have in the AUR.
It makes Arch the most complete and up to date Linux distro,
with the exception of a user friendly forum,
that doesn’t look like the nazi soup kitchen from Seinfeld,
and an installer.(BTW)
It is definitely annoying but I think it’s understandable from people that are coming in from the outside.
I’ve been using Debian for many years now. The hardest part about switching my desktop to arch (partly to try something different, partly for later kernel / tools) was not that arch is difficult, but that I need to type ‘sudo pacman -S’ instead of ‘sudo apt install’ to install new packages. It is functionally the same in my day to day use which is fantastic.
Arch isn’t cool anymore you should switch to gentoo
You misspelled Linux from Scratch.
Gentoo isn’t cool anymore. You should switch to funtoo, so you can have fun too!
Isn’t it deprecated?
How do you like it? I’ve been trying to get people’s opinions on it but haven’t found any users yet.
Funtoo is dead after this month
https://forums.funtoo.org/topic/5182-all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/
Ope 💀
It is a lot of fun! Right now I’m back to arch, since I don’t have a lot of time, but funtoo does right those older decisions in gentoo which do not make sense in these day and age. And the updates are fast, really fast, since they use git!
The downside is the docs aren’t as good. Not even close. The wiki for gentoo is a great source of information.
Actually looks like Funtoo got discontinued a week ago lol talk about timing
I blame capitalism
Usually a safe bet
Absolutely!
The cool kids are going back to Slackware.
When you’ve set that up correctly on modern hardware and got Gmome to run, it’s a real achievement.Meanwhile: NixOS
You’ve just made your first post regarding Arch. The cycle is complete.
Yes, and that’s the point of Archlinux. It’s nothing special, at least in the way it is configured. You make it special. You build your distribution more or less. You are the opinionated one, not the distribution. I think what people are “obsessed with Arch” is, that you have to manage it yourself and you build it yourself. It is the philosophy that is appealing I guess. In example not much is automated. Stuff is described in the wiki and community and it is expected that you learn the stuff and understand and then do it yourself, instead relying on automated and preconfigured stuff from a regular distro.
On my main system I use EndeavourOS, which is basically Arch, but with some pre-configs and opinions, and comes with some automation tools.
I can only use Arch, because I know how I set it up.
Preinstalled distros, even arch based seem overwhelming to me nowadays. I just prefer to set up Arch Linux myself so I know what minimal steps I did and what package I have
Come for the memes, stay for the wiki and AUR.
The meme is mostly a relic from the days when installing Arch was a very involved and mostly manual process – it wasn’t to the level of LFS, but you had to configure most of the base system, and it would leave you with a pretty bare-bones setup (no GUI by default, etc). So it was a pretty big hurdle and successfully installing it did give you a bit of nerd cred, though even then the “arch BTW” meme was tongue in cheek.
These days it’s just one of the most well-supported rolling release distros, and it’s got automated installers and GUI spins just like any popular distro. The two biggest assets are the AUR and the wiki.
NixOS does kind of feel like the spiritual successor in terms of effort to set up, and in that immutable OSes are kind of the next big thing, like rolling release was fairly unconventional when Arch was taking off.
I use Ubuntu but the Arch wiki is top notch and has helped me solved a lot of problems, especially technical issues like VFIO. I think you’re right that Arch love largely started as a meme to celebrate getting it installed, kind of like the jokes about being unable to exit VIM.
😂
Do people really make Arch their personality? Ive been using Arch-based distros since forever and never really met someone like that. I thought it was just a meme.
I like the minimalism and ability to control more parts of your system as opposed to an automated install process doing everything for you. But you don’t have to do that much manually. The main pacstrap step basically sets up your whole system anyway. It’s not that different to other mainstream distros. I have always just used it like any other distro.
I thought it was just a meme.
I see way more complaints about ‘elitist Arch users’ than I ever do comments from actual elitist Arch users.
Also, I never saw anyone saying anything about a “year of the Linux Desktop”. It’s just a meme.
It was certainly said seriously in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was the kind of phrase you’d find in computer magazines that came with a Linux CD-ROM stuck to the cover.
This guy from Intel claims to have been the first to use it in 1999, but I think it was a more widely used hype phrase around that time, when desktop Linux was becoming just about usable.
Both were a thing in discussions many years ago. That’s why they became a meme.
But since then it’s basically only used ironically because people quickly noticed they’re a meme.
It’s become a meme now. And I certainly don’t take it seriously myself. It’s more in fun to me as anything serious. (I don’t use Arch by the way).
If you can’t joke about yourself about something you do, then you may have a problem and should perhaps consider some therapy perhaps.
I worked with a guy who had a flag with the Arch logo and his Arch forums username on it hanging above his desk.
FOSS is my personality and Arch is my distro
Funnily enough one of the points where Arch distinguishes themselves from other distros is that they’re not strict about only including free software in their repos and are completely fine with including proprietary software alongside foss. There’s Parabola if you want Arch but with a strong political line on free software
Did you use
arch-installor manual classic installIsn’t the archinstall command just one word?
Never used it, memory fuzzy I’m sure you’re right
Both :) Manual classic install doesn’t strike me as particularly complicated.
No longer using Arch, but I can tell you what I liked about it:
- it basically only does what you explicitly tell it to, making the setup very flexible. There’s no stuff the OS hides behind its own tools really (resulting in little to none “DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE” situations).
- It is very up to date and the rolling release generally works well, there’s no pain with changing releases or anything.
- The package manager, including creating your own packages, is dead easy and fast. Caveat is that once you look deeper into it, it gets more complex as you need to keep a container for clean building around. Still, with the right tooling, it’s very manageable.
- As already mentioned, the documentation is very good.
- Packages are very close to upstream, in most cases just being something like “./configure; make; make install”.
- Generally very unopinionated.
You fell for the meme lol.
Arch is great if you want very high levels of customization without having to get into compiling and coding, like with Gentoo or NixOS.
I think of it as the distro equivalent to custom keyboard kit, you get all the parts and can swap them out as much as you want. But you’re not designing and fabricating your own circuit board and microcontroller, writing your own custom firmware, getting a custom case modeled and fabricated, etc.
There’s a reason “I use Arch, BTW” Is a meme.
Tbh I only use arch because I still love openbox too much
Can’t you just install openbox on any other distro? Looks like it’s available for all the major ones at least.
I think you might be missing the part where memes are not real. aur is useful. arch wiki is useful.
That’s like seeing the Otaku gang, deciding to give this Anime a go, watching Dragon Ball and asking “what’s so special about this?”.
Some people make some random thing their personality, others enjoy the same thing without making a big fuzz about it. Arch is great because of the wiki and the AUR, other distros have their own pros and cons.
