Scott LoweI just bought a new laptop specifically for #Linux. Convince me why I should not run #ArchLinux on it.
Bill@FloppySalmon Yes. I daily drive #Ubuntu at work and I’ve been running #ArchLinux on a spare laptop for the last several years. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’m definitely not a beginner.
@scottslowe I mean I'd only advise against arch if this was your first foray. I can't stand it when folks recommend it as a starter distro. I used Manjaro for a hot minute and it wound up bricking on 2 separate computers at a time where I didn't really have the time to drill into fixing it so that's why I'm on Mint (laptop) and Fedora (desktop). But if you're already screwing around with ar h and your happy with it and you have time to figure things out i don't see a reason why you shouldn't.
@FloppySalmon Fair enough! It will probably bite me at some point, but thus far I’ve been running #ArchLinux on an older spare laptop for a couple years with no major issues.
@scottslowe honestly I think my issue was more something with Manjaro's distribution and updates than a problem with arch. I just find at the end.of the day I don't want to have to have opinions about certain under the hood stuff.
Pope Bob the Unsane@scottslowe give Slackware a try if you want to learn things.
@bobdobberson Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time… 🤣
@scottslowe it was my first love with Linux. :D
@bobdobberson I also dabbled with Slackware “back in the day,” but later moved on to #Debian, #Ubuntu, #Fedora, and now #ArchLinux.
@scottslowe I'm casually moving back to Slackware to get away from systemd. Never really gave Arch a spin, but the wiki is great.
@bobdobberson The wiki is amazing, absolutely!
Becky@scottslowe If this is your first go at Linux, installing it and making it a useable system will take more effort than other distros, and it is easier to mess up things if you aren't careful. For many it is quite frustrating and an immediate turnoff from Linux.
It is however also a valuable learning experience, and if you can survive Arch Manual Installation, then you will be generally very well equipped to troubleshoot issues. Make sure to carefully read the instructions on the wiki and look up things you don't understand immediately. And don't be afraid to ask questions!
The cool thing about Arch is, that because every install starts out at the bare minimum, it is very easy to set up things just the way that you want to without any extra fluff. Nothing is installed without you explicitly telling it to (outside of dependencies). This also means however that you will have to manually install things like wifi/bluetooth functionality, printer support and anything else that may come just out of the box with other distros. It's not exactly an insurmountable effort, but it's more work that needs doing. Fortunately you only need to set it up once.
@mezz I learned quite a bit installing #ArchLinux on my spare laptop a few years ago (it’s still up and running, haven’t had any real issues with it), although I did “cheat” and used archinstall. I do like the minimal nature of Arch!
Campbell Jones@scottslowe @mezz Archinstall is NOT cheating! I'm an Arch staff member and I've used it for every single one of my Arch systems.
@scottslowe @mezz Elitism is dumb. If it works for you and it's not fundamentally flawed, use it.
Nu Modular@scottslowe I have a... ... ... suspect attraction to Mabox...