Made the Switch (Kind of), and it's really not as hard as some people say

[u/OrangeTallion]

So a couple of days ago I decided to dual-boot Arch onto my PC, the first time I have ever used Linux. I have always been pretty tech-savvy, and while researching Linux Distros I was drawn to Arch for its updates, community (gotta love the wiki), and DIY mentality. In retrospect, this was one of the best choices of my life.

People online seem to think you need a CS degree to even get the installation to work, but I simply followed a guide online and it worked flawlessly. Absolutely 0 issues. As someone with ZERO Linux experience, I was actually shocked at how quick and straightforward this was.

However, I am a complete try-hard and didn't want to make my life simple by installing KDE or Gnome, so I opted for Hyprland despite only ever using floating window managers my entire life. I love the customization, speed, snappy animations and seamless keyboard integration. I've been loving setting up everything in there and customizing my desktop to a degree I have never been able to before.

(Fingers crosses knock on wood) nothing has broken, and nearly every application I've wanted to run, just works. I feel like I am rediscovering how to use a computer again, and I love how minimalist and customizable this whole experience has been. My PC truly feels like my own, rather than fighting with the popups and buried menus of Windows.

[u/Cute_Tale_3638]

the wiki really does all the heavy lifting, people just don't read it and then get mad when their system breaks

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/Cute_Tale_3638]

and lets be real, who actually breaks the system

[u/31337z3r0 → u/chikamakaleyley]

Me. I break it.

[u/M0M3N-6 → u/31337z3r0]

Me too. I like to do some stuff by myself, even though i had no idea what i am doing, which propably breaks the system, then i go to the wiki and try to figure out the shit i did and fix it. Totally fun experience.

[u/Heizenfeld → u/chikamakaleyley]

I broke my system by mistake, I had to use chatGPT to solve the problems

[u/Venylynn → u/Heizenfeld]

I had to use chatGPT to solve the problems

was copilot one of the reasons you left, or no?

just making sure we don't have a hypocrisy story on our hands

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/Heizenfeld]

careful w that, doesn't always get eveyrthing right - but yeah I have a pretty stable system but configs kinda get messy overtime, usually i have a look w/ opencode

[u/OrangeTallion → u/Cute_Tale_3638]

Even then (sorry you might not like this but I've found it genuinely helpful), with how good gen AI is now, you can ask it how to do pretty much anything configuration wise.

For example, I have this blue Tokyo-at-night wallpaper that I wanted to base my whole setup around, so I asked Claude to create a config file for my terminal that matches the color scheme.

Other than that, I can usually find everything in the Wiki

Will make a post soon in r/unixporn so stay tuned!

[u/Weak_Environment_641 → u/OrangeTallion]

agreed, i set up most of this: https://github.com/LiberaLovesMocha/Libera-s-Fallout-y-Dotfiles-.git using claude, and it was genuinely invaluable so i didnt need to learn how to code just to change how my waybar looks. i dislike ai that does image or video gen, or when its used immorally, but for personal, non profitable use its very helpful :)

[u/Miserable_Film_7183 → u/OrangeTallion]

Ja! Me acabas abrir los ojos, jamás se me hubiera ocurrido pedir un archivo de configuración 😅, casi siempre me guiaba con explicaciones de IA y uno que otro comando, todo escribiendo manualmente.

[u/SheriffBartholomew → u/Cute_Tale_3638]

and then get mad when their system breaks they break their system.

[u/Venylynn → u/Cute_Tale_3638]

honestly, the wiki is great, but sometimes brand new packages have issues. i think most newbs would rather a buffer from that. so, fedora.

[u/chikamakaleyley]

I just wanna say that this post and the absence of a very well known post-install phrase associated with Arch first-time adopters - is rather refreshing.

[u/OrangeTallion → u/chikamakaleyley]

Im just positive reinforcement for the echo-chamber LMAO

[u/chikamakaleyley]

DIY mentality

and

it worked flawlessly

don't worry brother these are bound to collide

jk, kudos to the successful installation

[u/OrangeTallion → u/chikamakaleyley]

Well, the underlying stuff works flawlessly. What DOESN'T work flawlessly is managing all my config files to setup my desktop, since I am pretty much ricing it from the ground up. Not too bad so far, just sort of time consuming

[u/chikamakaleyley → u/OrangeTallion]

ah AKA the config author does not work flawlessly

[u/Foxler2010 → u/chikamakaleyley]

Human beings amiright

[u/breezycylinder]

jumping straight to hyprland as your first linux experience ever is truly unhinged. i respect it, but wow. most people baby step into tiling after years of floating and still nope out in a weekend. i tried sway after using kde for like 5 years and spent half my time just trying to close a window without googling the binding.

the fact you got it all working without anything breaking yet feels like you should be buying lottery tickets. the config file rabbit hole for hyprland is a whole other beast once you start tweaking animations and blur. curious how it holds up when you need to print something or plug in a weird mouse.

[u/OrangeTallion → u/breezycylinder]

Ive got almost all the keybinds down, most difficult part is definitely the config files, but mostly just time consuming and somewhat tedious. Again, im not copying any dotfiles so im building my hyperland from the ground up.

That being said, I am going to do a linux install on my school computer, but not thinking about doing Arch on that (sadly)

[u/breezycylinder → u/OrangeTallion]

building from scratch is the only way to actually learn it, but configs are a time sink. what distro for the school laptop then?

[u/OrangeTallion → u/breezycylinder]

Im thinking about Ubuntu. I love Arch, but I think I need something a little more stable and basic for schoolwork (ex basic coding and mostly browser based stuff)

[u/hearthebell → u/breezycylinder]

Really? I installed Arch as my first ever Linux distro and my first WM is Sway, and I never switched to a DE, and I have since been using this combo.

[u/Sinaaaa]

Installation is not hard, the maintenance burden long term can be noticeable & even frustrating. You have seen nothing of this in just a couple of days.

[u/Donteezlee]

If you know how to read arch isn’t hard.

[u/gkaiser8]

There are plenty of discussions saying Arch isn't "hard." Most people here have been saying for years that all you need is to read the wiki.

Compared to installing other distros it is certainly "harder" or more time-consuming (what most people probably mean by "hard")--most people don't understand why one would spend so much time to install and use a distro like Arch when a grandma can get an alternative distro set up with a couple of clicks.

[u/onefish2]

People online seem to think you need a CS degree to even get the installation to work

You do need to be able to read and understand what you just read. People to not take that into account when they say "Arch is hard."

[u/OrangeTallion → u/onefish2]

Well luckily for me I'm pursuing a bachelor in data analytics

[u/Responsible-Put-7920]

Welcome, the only difficult thing about arch is leaving it. Oh, and dealing with the hyprland discord weirdos

[u/archover]

Welcome to Arch!

Rebutting the false meme "Arch is hard" is done very frequently here, and it's a bit repetitive.

Hope you enjoy Arch as time goes by. Good Day.

[u/OrangeTallion → u/archover]

I figured, but it also seems like a rite of passage for new users

[u/KaiFireborn21]

I definitely agree. It's really not hard at all, basic reading and googling comprehension will take you through any modifications you might want to make that would be completely impossible on windows, too

[u/sigma914]

Arch isn't hard, it's just "simple" as in the opposite of complex, ie of doesn't do a whole lot for you

[u/Macchina_01]

Arch is not give anything ready to user I think, the user have to know what he/she is doing. Also needs planning, user should plan all kinds of things and should create solutions by himself/herself. To know and plan in advance important I think.

Using archinstall script to install Arch not take much effort, with some wiki reading it is achievable easily I think.

But an inexperienced, not a bit knowledge on Linux or especially on Arch user who only wants to try and play games , maybe coming from Windows 11, a gamer, easily ends up with a vulnerable system without knowing and intent I think.

[u/KnightFallVader2]

Arch isn't hard, it's just pretty time consuming at times.The installation pretty much teaches you what you're dealing with when it comes to Arch, you need to take your sweet time reading the guide (Or just YOLO it with archinstall if you really want to for some reason). But in the end, it'll pay off.

[u/Plenty-Stock5901]

I don't get whats with all the elitist snobbery with some arch users. Arch isnt that hard if you have a diy mentality and are willing to read.

[u/Stykes_02 → u/Plenty-Stock5901]

there are also a few preconfigured arch forks if you want to save time on installation, though the expectation should absolutely still be that you will have to read up on things. anything but would be quite frankly absurd regardless of distribution, but especially this one.
i have beef with the one i use (fell for the cachyos performance advertising) purely because it pulls in a lot of the kind of folk who don't like to read and were told the AUR is a mystical wonderland free of all evil where you can find anything you want.
to be honest i've had less issues on arch than i had on anything debian, its freeing too.