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?
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Arch is too easy to set up nowadays for it to be a “thing”.
Maybe 15 years ago when the process was slightly more complicated but even then it’s always been paint by numbers.
Even Gentoo isn’t that difficult, just time consuming.
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.
FOSS is my personality and Arch is my distro
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
I thought it was just a meme.
I see way more complaints about ‘elitist Arch users’ than I ever do comments from actual elitist Arch users.
Also, I never saw anyone saying anything about a “year of the Linux Desktop”. It’s just a meme.
Both were a thing in discussions many years ago. That’s why they became a meme.
But since then it’s basically only used ironically because people quickly noticed they’re a meme.
It was certainly said seriously in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was the kind of phrase you’d find in computer magazines that came with a Linux CD-ROM stuck to the cover.
This guy from Intel claims to have been the first to use it in 1999, but I think it was a more widely used hype phrase around that time, when desktop Linux was becoming just about usable.
It’s become a meme now. And I certainly don’t take it seriously myself. It’s more in fun to me as anything serious. (I don’t use Arch by the way).
If you can’t joke about yourself about something you do, then you may have a problem and should perhaps consider some therapy perhaps.
I worked with a guy who had a flag with the Arch logo and his Arch forums username on it hanging above his desk.
People like Arch because to many it feels more truly like your system than other distributions.
It isn’t that Arch is in some way more customizable than other distros, rather it’s that if there is a package on your Arch system, its probably there because it was your choice to put it there in the first place, and so the system can feel more representative of you given it only contains the things you want or need and nothing more from the get go.
Yes
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.
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.
😂
Ha ha, you fool, you fell for the classic blunder!
It’s just a meme, dude.
Everybody gangsta, until someone says I use Arch, BTW.
Not the only meme I fell for… Anyone know the best way to unload 5 thinkpads that originally shipped with Windows 7??
I can only use Arch, because I know how I set it up.
Preinstalled distros, even arch based seem overwhelming to me nowadays. I just prefer to set up Arch Linux myself so I know what minimal steps I did and what package I have
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.
Arch isn’t cool anymore you should switch to gentoo
Gentoo isn’t cool anymore. You should switch to funtoo, so you can have fun too!
How do you like it? I’ve been trying to get people’s opinions on it but haven’t found any users yet.
Funtoo is dead after this month
https://forums.funtoo.org/topic/5182-all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end/
Ope 💀
It is a lot of fun! Right now I’m back to arch, since I don’t have a lot of time, but funtoo does right those older decisions in gentoo which do not make sense in these day and age. And the updates are fast, really fast, since they use git!
The downside is the docs aren’t as good. Not even close. The wiki for gentoo is a great source of information.
Actually looks like Funtoo got discontinued a week ago lol talk about timing
I blame capitalism
Usually a safe bet
Absolutely!
Isn’t it deprecated?
Yep, ded. So sad.
Meanwhile: NixOS
The cool kids are going back to Slackware.
When you’ve set that up correctly on modern hardware and got Gnome to run, it’s a real achievement.You misspelled Linux from Scratch.
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.
Check your neck for extra beard hairs, or your legs for knee high socks
I have both
Ooh, a Gentoo user!
Knee high socks are for any Linux flavour 💖
Hell yeah! 💖💖💖
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.
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.
Those people are mostly just a meme, I rarely see people actually doing that anymore, although I’m sure they exist. If you want my personality out of it, spend more time customizing. You can look into optimizations, theming, or delve into window managers if you really want to make it your own. There’s a lot of options.
