this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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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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[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You're forgetting the finest feature - you have to tell everyone in the real world and online that you use arch btw.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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"

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[–] bismuthbob@sopuli.xyz 13 points 3 months ago

Arch offers a combination of rolling software updates, a simple but easily customized base, pacman for the package manager, the AUR, a barebones installation process by default, good documentation, and active development. That may or may not be a good combination based on your goals.

Other distros offer a different combination of characteristics. Those characteristics are a starting point and you can get to the same destination no matter what you use. The trick is figuring out what starting point is closest to your destination or which starting point makes the journey fun for you. For some people, Arch is that. For plenty of people, Arch isn't that.

[–] booty@hexbear.net 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (11 children)

What exactly is it that people obsess over? The ricing?

Please refrain from using racist terms. Here's a good thread about it.

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[–] nek0d3r@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] tmpod 11 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] GustavoM@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Am I missing something?

Yep. You got meme'd -- Arch is a distro like any other.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Arch constantly breaks on me. Maybe give it a while.

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[–] BaalInvoker@lemmy.eco.br 10 points 3 months ago

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@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 months ago

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@lemm.ee 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

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 comes in. lol

[–] ChojinDSL@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

This is probably true of most distros.

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[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] okrakai@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 months ago
[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Linux distros differ only in their package managers, really.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's like owning a screw driver, a really nice professional grade, well forged screw driver, with a molded grip handle.

Does it do anything that the $1 cheap knock off screw drivers can do? No, its just a screw driver.

If you use it every day, you may grow to like all the tiny features and comforts and customizations, or maybe not.

ArchLinux is a tool just like embedded linux systems, does basically the same thing as every other OS, its not life changing, but if you may grow to like its little details just like a custom screwdriver.

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[–] Laser@feddit.org 7 points 3 months ago

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.
[–] Shareni@programming.dev 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

Before the install script, i setup arch manually and added the gnome package that bringd DE and all the good Gnome stuff with it. it was then just the same as any other Gnome DE really. People taut the AUR, but OpenSUSE has same with their software.opensuse.org where packages maintained as experimental or community can be accessed (or by adding OPI). Since OpenSUSE had built in snapshotting, rollback and GUI admin (plus curation to do cleanups and maintemamce already OOTB) I uninstalled Arch. The ArchWiki though, that thing is a masterpiece

[–] lung@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

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'

[–] dino@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 months ago

troll detector noisy

[–] Andrzej@lemmy.myserv.one 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I'm trying out Arch on my laptop atm, and tbh the only real advantage (at least for me) is that the packages tend to be a lot fresher than on Debian-based distros. The question is how many of your packages you really need to be that fresh.

I think a lot of Arch users feel like wizards because they connected to the home wifi using the command line, but if you've tinkered with (/broken then had to fix lol) other distros, you will have done all this stuff before

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[–] Presi300@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

It's a linux distro, just like all other linux distros... Idk what to tell ya

[–] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 months ago

I mean if you want to be blasé about the fact not everyone has the same technical skills as you, sure…

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