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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?

thingsiplay ,

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.

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

paperd ,

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

keyez ,

But I have nvidia hardware :(

paperd ,

nVidia drivers on NixOS are easier and more pain free that on any other distro I’ve used.

SentientFishbowl OP ,

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

paperd ,

It is better in all the ways. Newer packages, no imperative config, reproducible.

Shareni ,

Nobody’s raving about the install, that’s just useful for people who don’t know what makes a Linux distro.

It becomes your personality after a few years because every update might break anything, and you need to regularly maintain random shit. Also if you forget to update regularly, the chance of everything crapping out rises exponentially.

I hope you’re using something like btrfs, because rollbacks are a must.

octopus_ink ,

Sorry you’ve had such a rough go, just remember your experience isn’t everyone’s experience.

Shareni ,

Sure, and not every arch user ends their comments with btw.

But that was consistent across multiple years, devices, and derivatives. It’s usually a 5 min fix/workaround, but it’s still annoying.

nek0d3r ,
@nek0d3r@lemmy.world avatar

That’s basically it. Some Arch users are genuinely just picky about what they want on their system and desire to make their setup as minimal as possible. However, a lot of people who make it their personality just get a superiority complex over having something that’s less accessible to the average user.

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

Am I missing something?

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

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

BaalInvoker ,

Let me ask you… Why would you do something like that? I mean, Arch is just a piece of software, why would you wanna be obsessed with or turn it your personality?

Don’t you have anything more meaninful to worry about?

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.

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

octopus_ink ,

Fresh packages all the time without any hassle or snaps/flatpak/appimages, and theoretically never needs to be reinstalled. What’s not to love.

OP was pretty fucking snarky though, ngl. Some of us enjoy using arch based distros without being walking memes, and far more people complain about people talking about arch than actually talk about arch these days.

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.

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.

Laser ,

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.
lung ,
@lung@lemmy.world avatar

Arch is perfect, it’s like THE Linux. It’s not really opinionated about anything, it just helps you do it. Hell you can “pacman -S apt” and slowly become a debian

That’s the magic of it: latest software, rolling release, edit some config files, do anything you want, spend half your time tweakin’

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