(No provocation)
I see these reasons:
- newbie
- lazy (don’t wanna edit config files etc.)
- unique features (like assistant/toolbox, some optimizations like in cachyos)
- wanna check how different systems are set up (that’s rather distrohopping)
Personally, I used manjaro i3 when I was beigginer and wanted to see how tiling WM should be configured (check out ranger config, for example). But after some time, I don’t see reasons why not to just customize pure arch (same with debian and debian-based distros).
I see what you mean. But in order to reach the point where Arch is configured and my machine Just Works, I would have to learn how to install Arch, what packages I need, what are the ups and downs of the various packages for handling the same things, resolve any conflicts I accidentally created, and then I can get to installing the things I actually want. It’s a lot of work and time that isn’t going into something I consider fun.
Arch is great for people who want to build their OS to be precisely what they want it to be. I happen to not be one of those people.
I consider that important knowledge for just using and troubleshooting your system, and one of the great reasons to go through the installation process - knowing what you’re using and why means when you want to change the behavior of something or figure out why it broke, you’ll know what software to look for.
Not just something to do for fun, or to have precisely the right things, but so you understand what it is you truly do have. This isn’t to say your approach is invalid, but for me it’s a reason to recommend Arch for people who want to go through the learning process.
Arch elitists don’t want you to know this but you can just type archinstall and a text installer guide thingy will install the system for you based on what you tell it.
That said, you’re spot on on the last part. I love arch exactly because it is the easiest one to customize the way I want to but it’s not for everyone and not everyone should use it
I didn’t know how until I did it. There’s a very comprehensive guide that you follow. If you can follow the recipe for cookie batter and manage to make the cookies, you’ll be able to install Arch. 🤟
To be fair that’s something you’d have to do regardless of distro, even on Windows. Learning which tools you like takes like half a career worth of time.
Why Arch based distro then? Why not, say, Fedora? Debian. Popos.
In my case - 90% of Linux issues eventually lead to an Arch Wiki article any way. Might as well give it a go, but I’m too lazy and too much a noob to try the real deal.
I started out with Ubuntu and went straight to Arch. I knew absolutely nothing. I followed the installation guide to a T, and it worked. I didn’t understand anything I did. Then I installed it again, in a new computer. I understood a lot more the second time.
You don’t need to know what you’re doing in order to succeed here. There’s a lot of handholding and learning as you go. 🙂
That’s exactly my experience. Now I understand most things I do, and I smile at this ‘installing Arch is difficult.’ No, it’s not. I can install it without any help from the wiki, by memory. As I understand what I’m doing and why. It’s not the difficult part. The difficult part is to make it yours.
I still can’t install from memory 😆, even if I understand every step now. The reason is quite simple for me: I install it so rarely because it’s so stable. I only ever install it on new hardware. Every computer I have has basically only seen a single Arch install. 👌
Fair point! I just did many installs recently (a bit of a long story), and at some point just stopped even following the wiki. But if I can afford it, I simply clone my entire system, and tweak from there. Takes very little time, and I have a complete clone of my perfectly working system.
Also, theoretically, I don’t even need a backup of the system, if I have at least two laptops with mostly same system. I have, one at home with broken keyboard and no battery, which servers as my home computer connected to a display. And another one is for on the go.
The complicated parts of the setup are already done and I still get the benefits of a fast update schedule, without (mostly) having to worry about accidentally breaking something.
And you’re right about running another, less finicky distro. It’s why I’ve got Bazzite on the HTPC and the handheld. Because I want those to be zero finicky, as poking around in them is way more of a pain in the ass.
Opensuse tumbleweed would likely be a good choice.
AUR, etc