Arch Linux Is A Great Distro But You Shouldn't Use It

I've been using Arch for a few years and it's a great distro however it's not the distro for everyone regardless of what some people shilling the distro might say, so here's the case against Arch Linux.

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==========Time Stamps==========
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Latest Software
1:35 Packaging Issues
2:27 AUR Is A Crutch
3:49 Illusion Of Choice
4:46 Manual Install Doesn't Teach You Anything
7:08 Arch Wiki Isn't Perfect
8:38 Reinstalling Is A Pain
10:33 Outro

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#ArchLinux #Linux #opensource #linuxdesktop

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[JTCPingas]

"How can you tell if someone is an Arch Linux user? You don't have to. They are going to tell you."

-Mental Outlaw 2022

[patriotic]

Can't we all just switch to Temple OS and be done with it?

[SamiKankaristo]

I've never really used Arch on any of my main systems, but I really appreciate the Arch Wiki. It's super useful, no matter what distro you use.

[urmensch]

Learning my Butt. I have been through the manual Arch a couple times by now. But what i "learned" from that I need so rarely that i forgot it by the time i need the knowledge the next time.

[topherfungus]

I remember back in the day, the enthusiast distro was gentoo. After spending that much time and hassle just putting together a working system and "learning", I too wanted to pretend it was somehow superior and would defend all of the wasted time and energy put into it.

[terminallyonline]

Reminder that EndeavourOS is a completely set up desktop experience that is essentially a vanilla arch setup with a convenient 'welcome menu' that you can turn off.

[JesseNeckred]

Last time I set up Arch, I had my whole setup going within 45 mins. Everything is fully set up by the first time I launch xorg. It's a good idea to keep an updated installed package list and backups of dotfiles. Probably much faster for me personally than many "user friendly" distros, considering it saves me from stripping out all the preconfigured stuff many other distros have. However for many, "user friendly" distros are the way to go.

[AshnSilvercorp]

I still use Arch mostly by choice in a way that i wanted to be able to choose, but end up really using it as a pretty basic user anyways. Package availability really is the best thing for me for the most part.
I'll probably only ever really use Arch on a main desktop, and would probably use Pop or Manjaro on a laptop or different PC if I ever got one.
Arch felt like that, "I'll build it myself" projects, but I recognize it's not from total scratch. Even I don't have time to compile that much... and I'm ok with that.

[forestmanzpedia]

I thank you for mentioning the problems with the Arch Wiki. Another weird situation is the installation guide. A long time ago this article used to be very straight-foward and simple. However, the order and layout of the current version is a bit weird. There are so many links leading you to other articles, where the necessary information is hidden somewhere under some headline, where the reader is forced spending so much time reading the sometimes vaguely-written articles which is both frustrating and very time consuming. Adding to what you said about reinstalling both situations are such a big pain to deal with.

[markonfilms]

I love my Arch but it's not for everyone. And some other distros like Fedora are really good and easier to install.

[arcstur]

I think the Archinstall script is helping a lot with the points about choice and installation. I used it to install arch with gnome on my system, and it came with a lot of things I need, like Bluetooth for example, because it installs a lot of gnome packages.

[loreleipenn]

In my case I got really happy with Gentoo since portage is a great package manager. The bad point I do not like much is the constant compilation of everything. When I needed to use dualboot, I would not return to Gentoo in some days and that would represent like 2-3 days of updating since when using Gentoo exclusively, such time would be distributed with my usual usage of the system. That was when I found Arch which I saw like something similar to Gentoo but with more binary packages and just a small subset needed to be compiled.

I used Gentoo from 2005 -> 2011 and Arch since 2012. Basically these two repos made me stick to these kind of systems and understand more of UNIX like systems. And yes I completely agree that these are not for everybody. Yet I have enjoyed them and learned so much.

[cosmiccuttlefish]

I used Arch full time for a few months and came away with a feeling of “cool, never again”. I like to customize my system but for me once things are set I don’t ever want to think about them again. Arch wanted me to constantly think about what I was updating or what packages I was running. No shade to people who want to tinker but for my production machine no thought peace of mind is worth so much more to me than the slightly greater degree of customization.

[nootics]

That "learning the system" thing... I agree. I feel like i've learned quite a bit about linux through using and setting up things post installation in manjaro, using the arch wiki and stuff, reading some man pages and options about commands, as you said, all that before installing and setting up arch on a separate usb stick. So manjaro was easier to get into the arch stuffs with while still allowing me to "learn more about the system", all before actually installing raw arch at all (endeavour might have been better, but manjaro was and is my first distro, sooo). So in a way, installing the arch base system doesn't teach too much, it's the post setup that really does, still much less than LFS of course, but that's a whole different ball park of "learning the system" anyway.

[aela]

I really like Arch, I used to use Debian Unstable but reinstalling it is way too much effort and sometimes installing software can be time consuming
I like using a rolling release distro, since I know I can just keep installing updates and never have to install a "release update"
I've had more issues updating to a new release of Ubuntu than I've had while using both Debian Unstable or Arch

[benjy]

I don't know why openSUSE never seems to get much love, Tumbleweed is basically Arch but easier and more stable, it even has something like the AUR called OPI, except you don't need to build the packages.

[paulo]

I agree with you about most of the things you mentioned, except the reinstallation being a pain. You can simply do a git-bare repository to manage your dotfiles, use pacman -Qqen (and -Qqem for the AUR) to generate a file of all the packages you have installed, and maybe even creating a makefile to automate all the process. The post-installation process would take just a couple of minutes and all you have to do is to run a command or two. Yes, it takes some time to do those things, but virtually *all* distributions out there would take the same amount of time, or even more, to reinstall your system the way you want.

But, there's one thing I really dislike about arch is how the repos manage the dependencies of some programming languages and everything it's a mess.

[putinstea]

Installed Arch + LARBS on my laptop this week. Taught me a thing or two about linux, but also that I think customisability is something Luke appreciates a hell of a lot more than I do.

[ianoconnor]

Thank you, I hope more Linux people start realizing this. I use Mint with kernel 5.17 and a MESA PPA, to get a RX6950XT working. I like my setup its stable is using the latest hardware, and fits my windows 98 style workflow.

[obake]

Completely agree. I've used Arch for a long time and though I sometimes switch to something else I always come back. Lately I've been thinking about giving Fedora a try, but I don't have any pressing reason to make the switch. Though the "expired keys" thing has happened to me often enough lately that it's getting annoying.
I personally enjoy the DIY custom part of Arch without having to return to LFS. I don't want to compile everything anymore, but I want more control than I would get with something like Ubuntu.
I've always said Arch isn't for everybody. And that's fine, it doesn't have to be.