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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Welcome to realizing the Memes are all bullshit and its just a solid distro that’s worth using for the simpleness. Just go use your computer like the average user is and roll with it
Yep, all this «how do I learn linux» stuff is weird. You don’t learn your OS, you use it. Did you need to «learn» Windows? You just launch it and click your browser / file manager / media player and browse, manage files and watch or listen to your media files.
You can just use your PC as you would regularly use your PC and find solutions once you face some issues. Yes, Linux issues are different from Windows issues.
You got downvoted but as a Systems Engineer when I get home from work, I want my OS to get out of my way. All these other people are crazy.
This x 1000. I’ve had a buddy razz me over using plain, simple Debian because it’s not bleeding edge and the packages are out of date in some cases. bro I don’t care I just want to play some games and occasionally use LibreOffice for some stuff.
Yep. If I could have a true steamOS that had no desktop mode that would be 60% of my home life. I have an 1135g7 32gb ram laptop for Mint.
Modern operating systems have made it take very little knowledge to connect to WiFi and browse the internet. If you want to use your computer for more than that, it can still take a longer learning process. I download 3D models for printing, and wanted an image for each model so I could find things more easily. In Linux, I can make such images with only about a hundred characters in the terminal. In Windows, I would either need to learn powershell, or make an image from each file by hand.
The way I understand “learning Linux” these days is reimagining what a computer can do for you to include the rich powers of open source software, so that when you have a problem that computers are very good at, you recognize that there’s an obvious solution on Linux that Windows doesn’t have.
I get your point, but for your specific example windows powertools gave my .stl files thumbnails if that is what you are referring to.
You joke, but I was there, 3000 years ago… and DOS, Windows and Lotus 1-2-3 courses sold like hot cakes. Yeah, people had to learn Windows until a critical mass of people knew it so knowledge would self propagate.
the vhs tapes
Didn’t bother going through the hoops and installed EndeavourOS which is arch-based with some additional default applications.
For me, the best thing of Arch isn’t the distribution but the Arch wiki. An impressive piece of documentation.
Arch wiki is superb, couldn’t have installed or configured Arch without it.
Which btw is the reason many people ended up with Archlinux… after the x-th time looking up some configuration issues on another distro and landing there.
And the Arch User Repository is really handy when you need some more users.
That’s not a typo but a jest to the security implications, isn’t it?
It was a joke on the dual meaning of “user repository” which I didn’t think about that deeply but that would have been smart.
The Arch build system is just as impressive IMO. I’ve written Debian and redhat packages for at least two decades and Arch packaging is just so much easier to handle. The associated tooling for creating and managing build chroots is excellent as well.
That’s the main reason my software is in the AUR but nowhere else. I tried to make a deb package and failed so many times so I just gave up.
EndeavorOS is essentially Arch with a gui installer and a few optional pre-installed packages.
Yes, wiki and community are top notch!
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.
It is definitely annoying but I think it’s understandable from people that are coming in from the outside.
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.
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)
I use Manjaro and little bit of Artix.
If I would recommend anything, it’s either EndeavourOS or Manjaro.
They’re Arch-based and friendlier.I stopped using Arch because I got banned from their forum for changing my username.
What did you expect they are using the same programs.
Read the thread…
Most of the time it is achieved with the phrase: “I use Arch, btw”. 😉
Also wearing unix socks might help
EDIT: A more complete guide.
Also, Blåhajar for better pics
In a way this post is just long-form “I use Arch, btw” 🤯
Don’t forget shitting on Arch-derived distros.
We save that for Manjaro, endeavor and the others are pretty cool
Yeah I know. Derivate distros are cool only if they don’t stray too far from Arch. How dare a distro do something different.
Keep it up, it’s a super cool look (and healthy) for a distro to hate on its own downstream.
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.
Check your neck for extra beard hairs, or your legs for knee high socks
Knee high socks are for any Linux flavour 💖
Hell yeah! 💖💖💖
Come for the memes, stay for the wiki and AUR.
OP forgot the socks. Classic mistake.
there’s arch socks?
Oh yeah that’s better.
I think they’re referring to the socks you’re supposed to wear when programming :3
o shit I was expecting merch lol
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.
How can I make using Arch Linux my personality when once it’s set up it’s just like any other computer?
Well, do you already have a personality that isn’t based on Arch? If you do, get rid of it.
I think you might be missing the part where memes are not real. aur is useful. arch wiki is useful.
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?
Welcome to the crowd! Eventually, you realize that an operating system is just an operating system: something you use to get work done, and the less you notice it, the better it’s doing its job. The pride of setting it all up mostly ends very shortly after you’re done. At that point, you realize that pretty much all distros are the same, give or take.
That said, there are always moments that make you realize that your OS is amazing. When you’re faced with a new and difficult task that you don’t know how to achieve, then you look at your distro’s documentation and solve it in a few elegant steps. And I’m not an Arch user, but that’s when the Arch wiki will really be your friend, as well as all the other resources that Arch has for its users. I can’t think of examples of these kinds of moments because they’re so rare, but those are the moments that feel great and really make you appreciate your OS.
The AUR is pretty awesome. If a piece of software exists on Linux, it’s in the AUR. Even software that doesn’t have a native Linux version can sometimes be found these, e.g. repackaged versions of Electron apps for Windows.
And once you start really customizing your system, you’ll see the value of the Arch Wiki. If there’s something you can do on Arch, the Wiki probably has a well-written guide for it.
100% its the Wiki and AUR!
On every other distro, once you want a program not in the package manager, it will likely be broken by the next update. On arch 99.995% of the time it will be in AUR and you can just make a simple PKGBUILD when its not, so your updates will automatically recompile all of your personal projects!
Well these days we have flatpak to solve the “not in the repo” (or ‘old version in the repo’) problem.
Only for (some) desktop applications. The AUR has everything, including CLI tools, configurations and even some niche scripts
Exactly. I hate when people constantly bring in Flatpak, because I’d be happily using Debian, if I could have Qtile Wayland with Qtile-extras and Hyprland in the repos with all their dependencies. But that’s never happening, especially for Qtile. These are window managers, you can’t package them in a Flatpak. And what about niche cli tools, as you mentioned? Or what about the latest Neovim on Debian? Yes, there’s a Flatpak but do you really want to mess with a Flatpaked CLI app? I know I don’t.
Yeah imagine having to type in
flatpak run io.neovim.nvimto launch Neovim
I used the Arch wiki to get gamescope working on Pop OS. It’s a great resource regardless of your distro. In many cases the info on there is not even Arch-specific.
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.
Edit: Forgot to mention that the bleeding-edge packages and AUR are nice features too. And being rolling release to a lesser extent, just my preference.
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.
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
I worked with a guy who had a flag with the Arch logo and his Arch forums username on it hanging above his desk.
Use it as your daily driver and get really comfortable with it. After this, complain loudly when you see someone doing anything in a different way. Then say “I use Arch btw”
