3 ms·

I had a very minimal amount of linux knowledge before jumping into arch as a distro: been using it for just over a year now and it was definitely a great choice

I had a very minimal amount of linux knowledge before jumping into arch as a distro: been using it for just over a year now and it was definitely a great choice. The best thing about arch in my opinion is the wiki, it has pretty much everything you need to know as to how to install and configure most any packages. I cannot understate how much I have learnt about linux from the many, many hours spent reading the wiki. That said, it is a massive time sink. The first couple of weeks I spent pretty much all my spare time trying to get something usable, and it was probably a couple of months before I preferred my setup to, say, windows (which is what I had been using up to that point).

rukshn 11y ago
Yah that's what I was also wondering, installing a desktop environment, drivers, all from the command-line no matter how familiar I'm with the terminal is something I'm afraid to try. Also I don't think I can install deb apps on Arch if I'm not mistaken
- moopling 11y ago
  Having access to another computer while you are setting up really helps. Have the wiki up for cross reference until you have a desktop environment. You can't use debs, but that isn't important as arch has a really nice package manager which makes it very easy to install anything from the official repos. Installing user maintained packages from the AUR is more tricky, but again there is the wiki. Once you know the ropes there are a couple of packages you can install to make installing from the AUR easier (like yaort, or pacaur), but you should really know how to do it yourself before relying on these tools.
  - tux 11y ago
    I agree, pacman package manager is amazing it beats the s*t of apt-get and rpm both in dependencies and usability. At least from my experience :-) Also there is GUI's for AUR and official packages if you prefer that. I recommend "Pamac" or "Octopi" Check out wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_frontends https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_fronte... Oh and don't forget about huge recommended list of packages at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications
- tux 11y ago
  Actually, there is many deb apps in AUR repos. I haven't found any app that I wanted to install that is not in official or AUR repos yet. Also, creating your own AUR package and compiling it is fairly easy.

rukshn 11y ago

Yah that's what I was also wondering, installing a desktop environment, drivers, all from the command-line no matter how familiar I'm with the terminal is something I'm afraid to try. Also I don't think I can install deb apps on Arch if I'm not mistaken

moopling 11y ago
Having access to another computer while you are setting up really helps. Have the wiki up for cross reference until you have a desktop environment. You can't use debs, but that isn't important as arch has a really nice package manager which makes it very easy to install anything from the official repos. Installing user maintained packages from the AUR is more tricky, but again there is the wiki. Once you know the ropes there are a couple of packages you can install to make installing from the AUR easier (like yaort, or pacaur), but you should really know how to do it yourself before relying on these tools.
- tux 11y ago
  I agree, pacman package manager is amazing it beats the s*t of apt-get and rpm both in dependencies and usability. At least from my experience :-) Also there is GUI's for AUR and official packages if you prefer that. I recommend "Pamac" or "Octopi" Check out wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_frontends https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Graphical_pacman_fronte... Oh and don't forget about huge recommended list of packages at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/List_of_applications
tux 11y ago
Actually, there is many deb apps in AUR repos. I haven't found any app that I wanted to install that is not in official or AUR repos yet. Also, creating your own AUR package and compiling it is fairly easy.