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?

  • H Ramus@lemm.ee
    88·
    1 year ago

    Didn’t bother going through the hoops and installed EndeavourOS which is arch-based with some additional default applications.

    For me, the best thing of Arch isn’t the distribution but the Arch wiki. An impressive piece of documentation.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    57·
    1 year ago

    Most distros are very similar - it’s mostly the same software just using a different package manager.

    This is why “which distro should I use” is the most annoying question in this community.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
      15·
      1 year ago

      It is definitely annoying but I think it’s understandable from people that are coming in from the outside.

    • SentientFishbowl@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        1 year ago

        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 /var/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

      • nous@programming.devEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        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).

    • mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world
      71·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • Giskard@lemmy.world
      95·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • nous@programming.devEnglish
        51·
        1 year ago

        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.

      • Yardy Sardley@lemmy.ca
        21·
        1 year ago

        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.

    • lud@lemm.ee
      15·
      1 year ago

      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…

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    361·
    1 year ago

    You fell for the meme lol.

    Arch is great if you want very high levels of customization without having to get into compiling and coding, like with Gentoo or NixOS.

    I think of it as the distro equivalent to custom keyboard kit, you get all the parts and can swap them out as much as you want. But you’re not designing and fabricating your own circuit board and microcontroller, writing your own custom firmware, getting a custom case modeled and fabricated, etc.

    There’s a reason “I use Arch, BTW” Is a meme.

  • verdigris@lemmy.ml
    251·
    1 year ago

    The meme is mostly a relic from the days when installing Arch was a very involved and mostly manual process – it wasn’t to the level of LFS, but you had to configure most of the base system, and it would leave you with a pretty bare-bones setup (no GUI by default, etc). So it was a pretty big hurdle and successfully installing it did give you a bit of nerd cred, though even then the “arch BTW” meme was tongue in cheek.

    These days it’s just one of the most well-supported rolling release distros, and it’s got automated installers and GUI spins just like any popular distro. The two biggest assets are the AUR and the wiki.

    NixOS does kind of feel like the spiritual successor in terms of effort to set up, and in that immutable OSes are kind of the next big thing, like rolling release was fairly unconventional when Arch was taking off.

    • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      1 year ago

      I use Ubuntu but the Arch wiki is top notch and has helped me solved a lot of problems, especially technical issues like VFIO. I think you’re right that Arch love largely started as a meme to celebrate getting it installed, kind of like the jokes about being unable to exit VIM.

  • boonhet@lemm.ee
    19·
    1 year ago

    Yup, that’s it.

    Next, join us at !gentoo@lemm.ee 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

    • dion_starfire@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
    19·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • communism@lemmy.ml
        5·
        1 year ago

        Funnily enough one of the points where Arch distinguishes themselves from other distros is that they’re not strict about only including free software in their repos and are completely fine with including proprietary software alongside foss. There’s Parabola if you want Arch but with a strong political line on free software

    • arbitrary@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

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

  • Ricky Rigatoni@lemm.ee
    18·
    1 year ago

    How can I make using Arch Linux my personality when once it’s set up it’s just like any other computer?

    Well, do you already have a personality that isn’t based on Arch? If you do, get rid of it.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    171·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Thann@lemmy.mlEnglish
      131·
      1 year ago

      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!