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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?

GustavoM ,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

Am I missing something?

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

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.

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.

halm ,
@halm@leminal.space avatar

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

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.

TheDarkQuark ,

anime waifus

django ,

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

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

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

Quill7513 ,

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

vort3 ,
@vort3@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

SynopsisTantilize ,

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.

prime_number_314159 ,

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.

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.
vort3 ,
@vort3@lemmy.ml avatar

What do you mean by people being obsessed over Arch?

Archlinux is Linux, it’s just a minimal distro that allows you to only use whatever you want to use. I have no idea what’s with being obsessed over it other than «use arch btw» which became a local meme recently.

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.

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?

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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