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So I installed Arch Linux... Is this it?

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?

paperd ,

Good now wipe it and install NixOS. You’re ready.

keyez ,

But I have nvidia hardware :(

SentientFishbowl OP ,

Not too familiar with it, in what way would you consider it better?

dutchkimble ,

You’re forgetting the finest feature - you have to tell everyone in the real world and online that you use arch btw.

dharmacurious ,

I like to do this to irritate people because I have a steam deck.

“I got a steam deck for Christmas. It runs arch, btw”

dutchkimble ,

That must be fun, when you’re not busy doing crossfit or planning your vegan meals.

Thann ,
@Thann@lemmy.ml avatar

oh, he didnt forget

communism ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

Toribor ,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

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.

llii ,

Also, I never saw anyone saying anything about a “year of the Linux Desktop”. It’s just a meme.

weststadtgesicht ,

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.

floofloof ,

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.

arbitrary ,

I worked with a guy who had a flag with the Arch logo and his Arch forums username on it hanging above his desk.

Thann ,
@Thann@lemmy.ml avatar

FOSS is my personality and Arch is my distro

Thann ,
@Thann@lemmy.ml avatar

now start using it for a while and you will notice the difference!

you will see you have all of the latest versions of programs, that other distros wont have for 6 months!

you will learn that the AUR has every package you could ever want!

you will see that the Wiki has extremely comprehensive answers to every question!

Arfman ,

Uhh, I thought this was just a meme

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

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.

moody ,

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.

Thann ,
@Thann@lemmy.ml avatar

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!

Deckweiss , (edited )

Now actually use it for a couple of years. Then you’ll see whats special about it.

For me personally, Ubuntu was breaking on every dist upgrade, the software was always out of date or not available in the repos. Been running arch for 5 years, same install, even transplanted it over to newer computers without issues. When some package is missing, I can throw together a PKGBUILD with chatgpt and put it on the AUR for others to use. It fucking rocks and is extremely sturdy while allowing me to do with it whatever I want.

But yeah, besides that, it’s just a linux. The individual things it does well are not even exclusive to arch. Ideally, you should not think about your OS at all and it should be out of your way, while you do something on it.

Maragato ,
@Maragato@lemmy.world avatar

Any major Linux distribution has a system for building packages, it’s not something special to Arch. In fact, Arch’s great advantage of the aur repository actually becomes a disadvantage by introducing instability and insecurity into your system when you add programs from that repository. It’s amazing that people criticize Windows security with .exe’s and then install packages from external repositories with the security of “trust in the repository”. How can you trust code with root access to the system just because it’s in the aur repository? That’s the main question I would ask Arch users.

SexualPolytope , (edited )
@SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

It’s a choice. We know that it’s riskier to use stuff from AUR. Which is why it’s highly recommended to read the PKGBUILD before installing the package. The basic Arch install doesn’t even include an AUR helper. That said, AUR is typically very reliable for packages with a decent userbase. It’s mostly due to the community aspect. Bad actors are caught relatively easily as the PKGBUILD is available to look at.

nous ,

Any major Linux distribution has a system for building packages

I have built packages for all the major ones. Non arch packages are a pain to build and I never want to do it again. In contrast arch PKGBUILDs are quite simple and straight forward.

How can you trust code with root access to the system just because it’s in the aur repository?

Because you can view the source that builds the packages before building them. A quick check to not see any weird commands in the builds script and that it is going to an upstream repo is normally good enough. Though I bet most people work on the if others trust it then so do I mentality. Overall due to its relative popularity it is not a big target for threats when compared to things like NPM - which loads of people trust blindly as well and typically on vastly more important machines and servers.

cupboard ,

It's amazing that people criticize Windows security with .exe's and then install packages from external repositories with the security of "trust in the repository".

As with almost every case of these sorts of comparisons, these are likely separate groups of people holding separate groups of opinions.

I don't use Arch anymore, but when I did I found that the AUR was really useful to quickly install niche applications that would take ages to be approved on to an official repository. Often those would be made by the application developers themselves or members of the community. I would personally vet the packaging script myself, but I'm sure many wouldn't - and that's fine. As with most software, there's some trust involved and often you assume that if you're installing from a reputable repository it's going to be fine. If people aren't vetting the installation scripts and are installing from random repositories, that's really their problem. I'm glad the possibility existed and it's the one thing I've missed in distros I've used since then.

yardy_sardley ,

Not sure if sarcasm or actual disinformation. You’re not supposed to trust the aur, that’s kinda the whole point of it. The build scripts are transparent enough to allow users to manage their own risk, and at no point does building a package require root access.

ChonkaLoo ,

Well there is far less malware on Linux tbf so comparison is not completely accurate. But same caution applies, try to vet and understand what you install. That part is also easier with the AUR as it’s transparent in the packagebuild what it does unlike random exes with closed source. It’s also a large community with many eyes on the code so unless it’s a package with few users then it’s gonna get caught pretty quickly.

lud ,

Been running arch for 5 years, same install, even transplanted it over to newer computers without issues.

To be fair, I pretty much do that with Windows 10…

SentientFishbowl OP ,

Makes sense. Do you find that by having the same install for so long (including transplanting it) that you have accumulated a lot of bloat? One of the things I really enjoyed about a fresh install was that I knew there wasn’t a build-up of digital junk files, but with Arch fresh installing every once in a while just seems impractical.

nous ,

Not in any bothersome way. But if you really want to reinstall often that is valid as well. You can very easily script the arch install process to get you back to the same state far easier than other distros as well. Or you can just mass install everything except base and some core packages and reinstall the things you care about again which almost gives you a fresh install minus any unmanaged files (which are mostly in home and likely want to keep anyway).

danielquinn ,
@danielquinn@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve been using Arch for about 15 years or so, and yes, I build up cruft… in my home directory ;-). The system itself is remarkably good at keeping tidy. The one spot to keep an eye on is /car/cache/pacman, as that’s where it stores every package you download before installation and it won’t delete it without you asking it to.

Any new config file will be saved with a .pacsave extension, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for those, but that’s basically it

Deckweiss ,

Most of the junk accumulates in /home and I did a cleaning once, where I got rid of a couple hundred GB there, from stuff that was either already uninstalled or still installed but unused for years.

In the other root directories, I didn’t find much tbh. My / (excluding home) takes up 40GB and I don’t think it was significantly lower years ago as the bulk of it comes from necessary program files.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

Ubuntu installs upgrade well in my experience, unless you add weird and outdated software from external sources. A bit like manually installing pkgbuild files you found on Github. Stuff will break in the same way when dependencies don’t get upgraded.

That said, Arch installs will break when a random library decides to update, and Ubuntu will break years later when you decide to upgrade.

Except for maybe Gentoo, Arch is the most “gets in your way” OS I’ve seriously used. You need to be conscious of stuff like your bootloader configuration, the network manager you use, and sometimes the kind of Bluetooth daemon you’re running, or software may not work or break your boot. It’s pretty easy to use if you install Arch by picking the exact same software you can also find in other distros (i.e. the Ubuntu style grub+systemd+NetworkManager+Gnome set, or the Fedora systemd-boot+dracut+NetworkManager+Gnome set). Following the Arch guide without copying a preexisting software set will make your life very difficult, as I’ve found out.

mostlikelyaperson ,

Yup, Arch is by far the distro I have had the fewest amounts of technical issues with. Yes, you need to know what you are doing or be willing to read docs, but there’s no magical bullshit, maintainer capriciousness and lack of planning happening like I have unfortunately witnessed all too often while using other distros.

atzanteol ,

Linux distros are made for using, not teaching. That’s what LFS is for: www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/

ReveredOxygen ,
@ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works avatar

How is this relevant? They were talking about how Arch has a great user experience

atzanteol ,

Replied to the wrong post by accident.

tmpod ,
@tmpod@lemmy.pt avatar

How can I make using Arch Linux my personality

That cracked me up x)

Anyway, I’d say it’s good that the OS is out of your way once set it up. Even though I don’t use Arch directly, I like how comprehensive the AUR is (even though there may be repositories more packages, like nix and whatnot), think the ArchWiki (like the GentooWiki) is a very useful resource, even if you use a completely different system.

scytale ,

You’ll know it when you feel the satisfaction of getting to enter pacman -Syu in the terminal several times a day and a new update or two. lol

Dr_01000111 ,
@Dr_01000111@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

a lot of people base there personality off it because they installed it from scratch and customize it exactly how it fits them. ofcorse that’s not going to be everyone because everyone is different.

Andrzej , (edited )

I’m trying out Arch on my laptop atm, and tbh the only real advantage (at least for me) is that the packages tend to be a lot fresher than on Debian-based distros. The question is how many of your packages you really need to be that fresh.

I think a lot of Arch users feel like wizards because they connected to the home wifi using the command line, but if you’ve tinkered with (/broken then had to fix lol) other distros, you will have done all this stuff before

floofloof ,

I find OpenSUSE Tumbleweed a good solution for up-to-date packages without slow install times or hours spent compiling and configuring things. It’s straightforward but current.

booty ,
@booty@hexbear.net avatar

What exactly is it that people obsess over? The ricing?

Please refrain from using racist terms. Here’s a good thread about it.

Zozano ,
@Zozano@lemy.lol avatar

Please refrain from not shutting the fuck up. Here’s a good example of what everyone should do when being told to be upset about something because you say so.

booty ,
@booty@hexbear.net avatar

Please enjoy your ban whenever a mod sees this. kirby-wave

Zozano ,
@Zozano@lemy.lol avatar

Oh no, a minor inconvenience.

What_Religion_R_They ,
@What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net avatar

Always baffles me that people like this exist. Are you this abrasive to people in real life too?

Yor ,
@Yor@hexbear.net avatar

they would probably be very quiet about it irl and post paragraphs about it later that day

Zozano ,
@Zozano@lemy.lol avatar

It’s nice that you think I’ve got enough self control to wait for later in the day.

The moment the confrontation ends I’ll be writing my totally unbiased account of events on r/AITA so I can get immediate vindication.

Zozano ,
@Zozano@lemy.lol avatar

Well, I wouldn’t be as snarky about it because getting heated IRL is inconvenient.

But I’ve got no problem telling someone to fuck off if they imply something I said is offensive when it is obviously not conveyed in any context where offence would be justified.

SentientFishbowl OP ,

Thanks for pointing this out.

booty ,
@booty@hexbear.net avatar

Of course! Thanks for being cool. It always sucks to learn a term you’ve been using has a shitty meaning you didn’t intend, and some people react to that realization quite poorly as we can see below lol

lemmyvore ,

Ricing comes from car customization. It’s only racist if you make it racist.

It’s like saying “bad driver”, it’s racist if you say “all Asians are bad drivers” or mysoginist if you say “all women are bad drivers” but “bad driver” by itself is none of that.

booty ,
@booty@hexbear.net avatar

It comes from racist car customization slang, yes.

What_Religion_R_They ,
@What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net avatar

When I went in I had very specific expectations and Arch lived up to them. Had an idea of what I wanted for a DM, and an idea of what I wanted out of an operating system, and it met my needs. I would still be using it like that except for the fact that I had to change it out to be able to run the proprietary software for my university, and I just never bothered to reinstall/reconfig it. If I were to do it again, I would make some script to set it up with all my necessary programs so that it is robust.

Confused_Emus ,

I mean if you want to be blasé about the fact not everyone has the same technical skills as you, sure…

namingthingsiseasy ,

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.

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