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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?

ChojinDSL ,
@ChojinDSL@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

This is probably true of most distros.

dharmacurious ,

This is why I still don’t know more about computers. Lol. Switched to using Linux as my primary years ago, thinking “I’ll learn more about how computers work, and become better at this by forcing myself to use Linux.” Found Ubuntu, it worked well, then found mint, it worked so well I never needed to actually do anything, and switched to fedora when I realized how much I like Gnome, and still never needed to actually do anything, because shit just works. Once you’ve made the switch, Linux is super unobtrusive. It’s just sorta there, in the background, doing everything for you while you play YouTube videos or watch porn. Lol. I still don’t know much about computers, but I now recommend every switch, because seriously, almost no one is computer illiterate enough not to be able to use mint or Fedora.

ChojinDSL ,
@ChojinDSL@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

If you want to learn more about computers by using Linux, I suggest something like Gentoo. Don’t know if it’s still the case, but I started with Gentoo back in 2003 and it took me 3 days until I even had a GUI. Learned a ton in the process about Linux under the hood and how it all works together. Thanks to Gentoo I have a well paid career as a Senior Linux System Administrator.

That being said, i should mention that I grew up with DOS, so I didn’t have the same apprehension as some people, when it comes to the command line and editing config files.

Unforeseen ,

Exactly the same here. I was originally exposed to Linux around 1996 with red hat but didn’t really learn it until around 2004ish when I spent a couple years on Gentoo. I now consult and work with Linux systems and Linux based integration projects.

I started with config files on an AIX system I had to maintain vs DOS though

django ,

Come for the memes, stay for the wiki and AUR.

TheDarkQuark ,

anime waifus

frankgrimeszz ,

I just wanted a distro built to my specs, up to date, uses pacman, not run by a for-profit company, with good documentation. The hype is mostly Reddit elitism and gatekeeping. I like that nobody has slipped branding and extra bookmarks into my browser.

halm ,
@halm@leminal.space avatar

You must have missed the small print that says “Personality not included”. Linux is simple, individual character is hard.

BlanK0 ,

Ya, its just some people over exaggerated a bit. As long as you don’t do stuff that obviously tries to mess with core system stuff it should be fine.

astrsk ,
@astrsk@kbin.run avatar

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.

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

Am I missing something?

Yep. You got meme’d – Arch is a distro like any other.

Frederic ,

Yes

Auzy ,

You already announced you use Arch… So you’re doing good

boonhet ,

Yup, that’s it.

Next, join us at !gentoo spend a day or 2 setting everything up and compiling every package from scratch, rice your setup, and realize that even that is barely different from Ubuntu to use once you’ve actually got everything set up.

Maybe Linux From Scratch feels a bit more special, but I never got to the finish line with that one, even as a teen I had better things to do with my time lol

swab148 ,
@swab148@lemm.ee avatar

I’ve done it.

Don’t.

lemmyvore ,

The graduation from Linux from Scratch is to be able to make your own mini-distro. I reckon anybody who gets that far is above petty feuds about the install process or packaging in this or that distro.

dion_starfire ,

This amuses me, since I literally went from Gentoo to Arch because it felt like the same bleeding edge distro without having to wait for the compile time for half of the packages.

That said, I generally don’t recommend Arch (or Gentoo) to newbies. It’s great when it works, but the number of times I’ve had to troubleshoot some random dependency issue because I took more than a week to update my system would scare any newbie away. It’s a bit like the parable of the cobbler’s kids having the worst shoes, or the mechanic always driving a project car - when you have the skills to fix something, you’re willing to put up with a lot of bullshit that a normal person wouldn’t.

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
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.

Bitrot ,
@Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Outside of the meme, the only people who make it their personality are generally younger and less experienced users who feel extremely empowered and proud by doing anything useful on the command line. Not like those users on Ubuntu (which they just switched from) who install stuff from a store like losers, nuh uh.

Before Arch you had the same type of people on Gentoo feeling superior because of use flags and watching hours of compiler output, after switching from Mandrake.

chevy9294 ,

I’m using Arch because you start with nothing and you can make any system you want. I have disk encryption, btrfs as a filesystem, secure boot with my own custom keys, I’m running self-build kernel, I’m using apparmor and I can use any program from AUR, etc. Thats my personality. Things that you can’t see but are important to me.

On other distros some of these things would be very hard to do. Especially without Arch Wiki.

TankieTanuki ,

Linux distros differ only in their package managers, really.

communism ,
@communism@lemmy.ml avatar

And init systems, and C libraries, and the few that use something other than GNU.

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