I've been working on Linux since '96. As time goes by I keep drifting more and more towards boring and stable distributions. I just don't want to be bothered with a system that needs me to groom it constantly.

Archwiki and archinstall are amazing

Arch taught me how to fuck my computer and now its my main squeeze.

I like to ask Linux people "Would you recommend Arch for a newbie?" Not because I have any intention of using Arch, but their answer to that question helps me judge the quality of their advice going forward.

As someone that was already in the IT realm professionally, and had previously dabbled with Linux on old hardware I decided that I would take the plunge. Trial by fire if you will.

Every distribution I had tried up to Arch didn't sit well with me. At least not to replace my Windows install. On the same note; I hated that I could only delve so deep into understanding my Windows system. And I absolutely despise the data greed from Microsoft as well.

It was time to take matters into my own hands. What better way for me to learn than to "build it myself."

The Arch Wiki was a huge help. First install I ever did I neglected to use archinstall. Just so that I could grasp some of the concepts of what archinstall was doinig.

The more and more I used Arch, the more and more I learned.

Arch has been the distribution for me. It has offered me everything that I need, and everything that I want. It has become mine to a degree that I am comfortable. It has taught me so much that it makes using other Linux distributions natural. The only real difference is that other distributions I use I just have to learn what underlying services and such are on it, and even then, the Arch Wiki has me covered.

To be fair, I did exactly that the first time i went to an Indian restaurant and it was fine. The reported spiciness was why i went though and it was great.

I don't see what's so hard about arch compared to debian. Different package manager, great wiki.

Some windows refugees do start with arch, btw.

Around 3 years ago I switched to Arch from Ubuntu(22.04) after 2-3 months of being a new user to Linux because I read that Arch was one of the best distros for setting up a custom system for tiling window managers. I was already testing i3wm on Ubuntu and I was ready to make i3wm my main desktop, so decided to take the Arch route. It really did feel like a jump into the dark even though I wasn't completely new.

For a moment I hated not knowing anything but after a few bruises I ended up learning enough things to be comfortable, and learning other non Linux topics by inertia. It was totally worth it, although I would tell my younger self to take it much slower.

It's tough for a distro to have both a strong newbie community and a strong old-timers community at the same time. Well done Arch community!

I picked Arch as my first distro about a year ago or so. Sure there was some things to learn but Archinstall was a breeze and after that the popularity of the distro means that there's lots of people asking and answering questions online. Also Archwiki is just fantastic. No regrets.