Arch Linux. What makes it different from the other distributions? Why is there some weird elitism paralleled by disgust around it?
In: 1021
Love searching for a pretty niche question and finding it was asked on ELI5 7 days ago and not 7 years
>What makes it different from the other distributions?
– Packages are rolling release.
– It’s a highly modular and minimalist distro from the get-go with a lot of user-driven choices at install.
– Arch is [extremely well-documented](https://wiki.archlinux.org/).
– [Arch User Repository](https://aur.archlinux.org/), a popular community driven package repo.
> Why is there some weird elitism paralleled by disgust around it?
– The Arch ethos pushes self-learning and responsibility, as it’s well-documented but less forgiving for Linux newcomers than many well-packaged distributions. This creates a barrier to entry, for better or worse.
– Some elitists think their hands-on experience makes them hardcore. They conflate their experience with Arch being better.
– Several Arch-derived distributions exist, like Endeavor and Manjaro. OS differences or forum policy may lead to Arch users dismissing non-Arch questions on their forums, leading to disgruntled questioners and tired responders.
– Most often the elitism and disgust is feigned! It’s Linux humor.
I had a look at Arch the other day to install on a VM as I thought it sounds fun then I saw the install process and I’m like are we back in the 90’s? I’m still going to have a play around with it as it looks intriguing. Not sure why elitism though as the commands you use to install it you should know anyway I personally think.
Arch linux might be the most well-documented product in computer history. (ok that’s setting the bar kinda low but bear with me) The documentation is so good that even users of other distros use it to figure out how to do a certain thing or fix various issues.
The flip side is that the installer does nothing that other installers do automatically. The documentation/manual is good. but to get a working system, you *have to* use the documentation and manually do many configuration and setup steps of the installation.
Arch Linux is the distro equivalent of a Framework laptop. It’s pretty much modular. It comes with just about the bare minimum to be able to install stuff. Imagine if your phone only came with a store app, didn’t even include a launcher or anything, just setting and store. Its appeal is having that clean slate. The downside is you need to know how to setup everything. Like people mentioned, it’s not the only example of this kind of distro, but it is the most accesible bare bones distro for most users. Another one is Alpine which is very stripped down, usually used for images that run on top of an existing host, so you don’t want to allocate gigabytes per image if you are spinning up a dozen or two just enough to run the program.
If you will, consider a built computer/laptop a house, and the os the furniture within that house and the programs you run being decorations.
In this analogy a Mac is a small fully furnished apartment in NY, with fancy custom furniture.
A prebuilt with preinstalled Windows is a property brothers style renovation. Drab, bland, grey, overpriced… How white people spice their food.
A custom built PC with Windows would range from a regular house to a McMansion you dragged your furniture into. It may have been built by someone else, and be a bit questionable but you’re used to it. There’s an eclectic mix of new and old ass furniture. Somehow it works, still. Some of the decorations only look good in combination with this furniture and this is the main reason many still keep it.
A custom built PC with *insert linux distro here* is the same house as above, but you had someone else handle your furniture. Decorations are a bit hit and miss, but with some rearranging you manage to get your old decor looking somewhat decent in the new space. Depending on distro, you might have had to build some of the furniture by yourself after the fact.
Arch is like having an empty house, going to the IKEA and picking which furniture you want and assembling it yourself. You get to pick and choose everything and then follow the clear instructions made by someone else to assemble it. This is the one of the very few accomplishments in your life and you feel disproportionally proud of it. In the end you get a mish mash of styles and almost nothing actually works as a stylistic whole. Almost none of your decor works. You pretend you don’t see it, and go around bragging like you’re a carpenter who made 100% of his own custom furniture.
To set the record straight, Arch no longer requires you to be ultra hardcore to install it anymore. The default OS has a mostly-automatic installer which makes installation very easy.
Everyone knows how to drive a car these days but not everyone is a mechanic. Arch let’s you build your own car almost (big emphasis on almost) from scratch.
Your scratch car may use wheels and tires but only you know which exact parts you used to build it.
If you don’t know how to fix anything you’re stupid.
See the parallelism now?
Can someone explain like I’m one?
Arch is fantastic for good learning experience. Some people spend time learning about this stuff and some don’t. Its like creating your own car from stretch, it’s unique and customized to your own needs. There is a funny cult in it, it’s a joke and everybody from arch (most) are in it. There is no elitism. Issue is people just hate to open manual for things. That may give bad impression to newcomers in arch. Just open simple manual and use it. I used it for year and it was fine. But then I started using MX Linux, it just works and that’s it.
One awesome thing I learnt from arch. *Things can break and you should have plan in place to fix it*.
If you have free time, try it. Its a good experience. Just don’t get obsessive about it
Latest Answers