Arch Linux. What makes it different from the other distributions? Why is there some weird elitism paralleled by disgust around it?
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It’s a very bare-bones experience with minimal hand holding. You have to really understand your system in order to get everything functional, because you’re hunting down drivers for basically everything. Have an uncommon component in your system? You might be compiling drivers yourself.
This has become less true over the years, but that was the gist of it when I put together my first Arch system about a decade ago.
The elitism comes from the fact that you don’t really reach for arch unless you have a very specific use case, want the learning experience, or see it as a flex. You’re not going to hear from the previous two scenarios often.
The disgust comes from people who’s interactions have been with the people trying to flex, with a light sprinkling of people who have tried to put together an arch system and turned away with nothing but frustration.
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